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Category: Middle East

  • Oil for Soil: A Grand Bargain on Iraq and the Kurds

    Oil for Soil: A Grand Bargain on Iraq and the Kurds

    Kirkuk/Brussels, 28 October 2008: Rising acrimony over disputed territories will undermine still fragile progress in Iraq unless a package deal is reached over oil, revenue sharing, federalism and the constitution.

    Oil for Soil: Toward a Grand Bargain on Iraq and the Kurds,* the latest report from the International Crisis Group, offers a bold proposal for resolving the long-festering conflict over Kirkuk and other disputed territories that threatens to disrupt Iraq’s relative peace.

    “In its ethnically-driven intensity and its ability to drag in regional players such as Turkey and Iran, the Kirkuk issue can have a devastating impact on efforts to rebuild a fragmented state”, says Joost Hiltermann, Crisis Group’s Middle East Deputy Program Director. “This conflict potentially matches or even exceeds the Sunni-Shiite divide that spawned the 2005-2007 sectarian war”.

    Despite some progress, Iraq’s legislative agenda is bogged down primarily by a dispute over territories claimed by the Kurds as historically belonging to them – territories that contain as much as 13 per cent of Iraq’s proven oil reserves. Stymied in their quest to incorporate these territories into the Kurdistan region by constitutional means, due mainly to the suspicions of Iraq’s Arab majority that their real goal is independence, Kurdish leaders have signalled their intent to hold politics in Baghdad hostage. At the same time, the Iraqi government’s growing military assertiveness is challenging the Kurds’ de facto control over the territories.

    The current piecemeal approach should be discarded in favour of a grand bargain involving all core issues: Kirkuk and other disputed territories, revenue-sharing and the hydrocarbons law, as well as federalism and constitutional revisions. A sober assessment of all sides’ core requirements suggests a possible package deal around an “oil-for-soil” trade-off: in exchange for at least deferring their exclusive claim on Kirkuk for a decade, the Kurds would obtain demarcation and security guarantees for their internal boundary with the rest of Iraq, as well as the right to manage and profit from their own mineral wealth.

    This package demands painful concessions from all sides, which they are unlikely to make without strong international involvement. The UN mission (UNAMI) will need stronger backing from the U.S. and its allies. Washington should make it a priority to steer politicians toward the grand bargain, while securing it through political, financial and diplomatic support.

    “There is little time to waste. As U.S. forces are set to draw down, Washington’s leverage will diminish, as will chances for a workable deal”, warns Robert Malley, Crisis Group’s Middle East & North Africa Program Director. “The likeliest alternative is a new outbreak of violent strife over unsettled claims in a fragmented polity governed by chaos and fear”.

    Contacts: Andrew Stroehlein (Brussels) +32 (0) 2 541 1635
    Kimberly Abbott (Washington) +1 202 785 1601
    To contact Crisis Group media please click here
    *Read the full Crisis Group report on our website: http://www.crisisgroup.org
  • Turkey facing gas shortage

    Turkey facing gas shortage

    ANKARA, Turkey, Oct. 28 (UPI) — Turkey is faced with the possibility of a severe gas shortage if development of an Iranian natural gas pipeline falters, the state-owned pipeline firm said.

    BOTAS, the oil and natural gas pipeline firm in Turkey, warned government officials that gas shortages would emerge as early as January if a pipeline from the Iranian South Pars gas field was not completed soon, the business daily newspaper Referans reported Tuesday.

    Ankara and Tehran had agreed to develop additional arteries to meet Turkish demands as gas compression issues diminished the capacity along conventional routes.

    Iran hopes to link its South Pars gas field to the planned Nabucco pipeline, a project favored by the European Union as a means to ease dependency on Russian natural resources.

    Iran is keen on expanding its customer base amid Western-imposed economic sanctions as punishment for its controversial nuclear program. For its part, BOTAS has urged Iran to act expeditiously on developing its infrastructure to avoid shortages.

  • INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP – NEW REPORT Oil for Soil: A Grand Bargain on Iraq and the Kurds

    INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP – NEW REPORT Oil for Soil: A Grand Bargain on Iraq and the Kurds

     

    Kirkuk/Brussels, 28 October 2008: Rising acrimony over disputed territories will undermine still fragile progress in Iraq unless a package deal is reached over oil, revenue sharing, federalism and the constitution.

    Oil for Soil: Toward a Grand Bargain on Iraq and the Kurds,* the latest report from the International Crisis Group, offers a bold proposal for resolving the long-festering conflict over Kirkuk and other disputed territories that threatens to disrupt Iraq’s relative peace.

    “In its ethnically-driven intensity and its ability to drag in regional players such as Turkey and Iran, the Kirkuk issue can have a devastating impact on efforts to rebuild a fragmented state”, says Joost Hiltermann, Crisis Group’s Middle East Deputy Program Director. “This conflict potentially matches or even exceeds the Sunni-Shiite divide that spawned the 2005-2007 sectarian war”.

    Despite some progress, Iraq’s legislative agenda is bogged down primarily by a dispute over territories claimed by the Kurds as historically belonging to them – territories that contain as much as 13 per cent of Iraq’s proven oil reserves. Stymied in their quest to incorporate these territories into the Kurdistan region by constitutional means, due mainly to the suspicions of Iraq’s Arab majority that their real goal is independence, Kurdish leaders have signalled their intent to hold politics in Baghdad hostage. At the same time, the Iraqi government’s growing military assertiveness is challenging the Kurds’ de facto control over the territories.

    The current piecemeal approach should be discarded in favour of a grand bargain involving all core issues: Kirkuk and other disputed territories, revenue-sharing and the hydrocarbons law, as well as federalism and constitutional revisions. A sober assessment of all sides’ core requirements suggests a possible package deal around an “oil-for-soil” trade-off: in exchange for at least deferring their exclusive claim on Kirkuk for a decade, the Kurds would obtain demarcation and security guarantees for their internal boundary with the rest of Iraq, as well as the right to manage and profit from their own mineral wealth.

    This package demands painful concessions from all sides, which they are unlikely to make without strong international involvement. The UN mission (UNAMI) will need stronger backing from the U.S. and its allies. Washington should make it a priority to steer politicians toward the grand bargain, while securing it through political, financial and diplomatic support.

    “There is little time to waste. As U.S. forces are set to draw down, Washington’s leverage will diminish, as will chances for a workable deal”, warns Robert Malley, Crisis Group’s Middle East & North Africa Program Director. “The likeliest alternative is a new outbreak of violent strife over unsettled claims in a fragmented polity governed by chaos and fear”.

    Contacts: Andrew Stroehlein (Brussels) +32 (0) 2 541 1635
    Kimberly Abbott (Washington) +1 202 785 1601
    To contact Crisis Group media please click here
    *Read the full Crisis Group report on our website: http://www.crisisgroup.org

    The International Crisis Group (Crisis Group) is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation covering some 60 crisis-affected countries and territories across four continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict.

  • Syria hits out at ‘terrorist’ US

    Syria hits out at ‘terrorist’ US

    Syria’s foreign minister has accused the US of an act of “criminal and terrorist aggression” over what it says was a helicopter raid on its territory.

    Walid Muallem said Sunday’s attack saw four US aircraft travel eight miles inside Syrian airspace from Iraq and kill eight unarmed civilians on a farm.

    Unnamed US military officials have said the attack targeted and killed a high profile al-Qaeda operative.

    But the White House has not confirmed or denied the alleged raid.

    Walid Muallem: We put the responsibility on the American government

    A US official was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying that its forces had mounted a “successful” raid against foreign fighters threatening US forces in Iraq.

    He said the raid was believed to have killed “one of the most prominent foreign fighter facilitators in the region”.

    The BBC’s Kim Ghattas in Washington says the person targeted was Abu Ghadiyah, an Iraqi from Mosul.

    He was the leader of a network which smuggled fighters into Iraq and had been put on a US Treasury Department black list in February for funding and arming insurgents, says our correspondent.

    The military official quoted by AFP said: “Look when you’ve got an opportunity, an important one, you take it”.

    “That’s what the American people would expect, particularly when it comes to foreign fighters going into Iraq, threatening our forces.”

    The US has previously accused Syria of allowing militants into Iraq, but Mr Muallem insisted his country was trying to tighten border controls.

    ‘An opportunity’

    Speaking at a news conference in London, Mr Muallem said the raid on the town of Abu Kamal had killed a father and his three children, a farm guard and his wife, and a fisherman.

    Mr Muallem said the raid was “not a mistake” and that he had urged the Iraqi government to investigate.

    “We consider this criminal and terrorist aggression. We put the responsibility on the American government,” he told reporters following talks with UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

    He added: “All of them [the victims] are civilians, Syrian, unarmed and they are on the Syrian territories.

    “Killing civilians in international law means a terrorist aggression.”

    Asked if Syria would use force if a similar operation was mounted, he said: “As long as you are saying if, I tell you, if they do it again, we will defend our territories.”

    Referring to the US presidential election, he said: “We hope the coming administration will learn the mistakes of this administration.”

    Mr Muallem and Mr Miliband were scheduled to hold a joint press conference, but Mr Miliband withdrew. The UK government has declined to comment on the raid.

    Exclusive BBC footage of the site of the alleged raid

    BBC

  • US helicopter attack on Syria kills eight

    US helicopter attack on Syria kills eight

    Correspondents in Damascus, Syria | October 28, 2008

    US MILITARY helicopters launched a rare attack yesterday on Syrian territory close to the border with Iraq, killing eight people in a strike the Syrian Government condemned as “serious aggression”.

    A US military official said the attack by special forces had targeted a network of al-Qa’ida-linked foreign fighters moving through Syria into Iraq. The Americans had been unable to shut down the network in the area because Syria was out of the US military’s reach.

    “We are taking matters into our own hands,” the official said.

    The cross-border raid came just days after the commander of US forces in western Iraq said US troops were redoubling efforts to secure the Syrian border, which he called an “uncontrolled” gateway for fighters entering Iraq.

    A Syrian government statement said the US helicopter gunships attacked Sukkariyeh Farm near the town of Abu Kamal, 8km inside the Syrian border. Four military helicopters attacked a civilian building under construction and fired on the workers inside, killing them. Four children were among the dead, the Syrians reported.

    A resident of the nearby village of Hwijeh said some of the helicopters landed and the US troops left the aircraft and fired at a building. He said the helicopters flew along the Euphrates River into the area of farms and several brick factories. Another witness said four helicopters were used in the US attack.

    Since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, there have been some instances in which US troops crossed the 600km Syria-Iraq border in pursuit of militants, or US warplanes violated Syria’s airspace. But yesterday’s attack was the first conducted by aircraft and on such a large scale.

    Syria’s Foreign Ministry said it had summoned the US and Iraqi charges d’affaires to protest over the strike.

    “Syria condemns this aggression and holds the American forces responsible for this attack and all its repercussions. Syria also calls on the Iraqi Government to shoulder its responsibilities and launch an immediate investigation into this serious violation and prevent the use of Iraqi territory for aggression against Syria,” a government statement said in Damascus.

    Syrian state television broadcast footage showing blood on the floor of the construction site.

    The area attacked is near the Iraqi border city of Qaim, which had been a major crossing point for fighters, weapons and money coming into Iraq to support the Sunni insurgency.

    The network of foreign fighters sends militants from North Africa and elsewhere in the Middle East to Syria, where elements of the Syrian military are in league with al-Qa’ida and loyalists of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party, a US military official said.

    While US forces have had considerable success in shutting down the “rat lines” in Iraq, the Syrian area has been out of reach, the official said.

    US major general John Kelly said last week that Iraq’s western borders with Saudi Arabia and Jordan were fairly tight as a result of good policing by security forces in those countries, but Syria was a “different story”.

    He said the US was helping construct a sand barrier and ditches along the border.

    The White House in August approved similar raids by US special forces from Afghanistan crossing the border into Pakistan to attack al-Qa’ida and Taliban fighters there.

    Most of the foreign fighters in Iraq enter through Syria, according to US intelligence. Foreign fighters carrying cash have been al-Qa’ida in Iraq’s chief source of income, contributing more than 70 per cent of the operating budgets in one sector in Iraq, according to documents captured on the Syrian border last year.

    Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem accused the US earlier this year of not giving his country the equipment needed to prevent foreign fighters from crossing into Iraq. He said Washington feared Syria could use such equipment against Israel.

    Although Syria has long been viewed by the White House as a destabilising country in the Middle East, in recent months Damascus has been trying to change its image and end years of Western seclusion.

    President Bashar Assad has pursued indirect peace talks with Israel, mediated by Turkey, and says he wants direct talks next year. Syria has also agreed to establish diplomatic ties with Lebanon, a country it used to dominate, and has worked harder at stemming the flow of militants into Iraq.

    AP

    Source: www.theaustralian.news.com.au, October 28, 2008

  • Sulaimani: PUK officials meet with a US diplomat

    Sulaimani: PUK officials meet with a US diplomat

    PUKmedia    2008-10-26    20:41:38

    PUK politburo active member, Omer Said Ali attended by several other PUK politburo members including Jalal Jawhar and Mustafa Saaid Kadir met with a US official from the US Embassy in Baghdad- Head of US diplomatic representation   in Sulaimani province David Wsikler – on Sunday.
    During the meeting, the political and economical conditions in Iraq and the Kurdistan region were discussed.
    Omer Saaid Ali explained that there are political and economical stability in the Kurdistan region which is a good opportunity for foreign investment in the region.
    The US official expressed the readiness of the US Embassy to enhance support between the US Embassy in Iraq and the Kurdistan region especially in aspects of joint American- Kurdish investment, importing high-quality technology and getting benefit from the American investment system.