IRAQ | Foreign Affairs

[Sinjar]

Maybe he is talking about the mistakes they should avoid?

[Sinjar]

That's uncalled for akhi Ishtar..

Let's get this thread on track again guys...

Foreign Minister Meets U.S. Deputy Secretary

13/09/2012

Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, met on 12/9/2012 Deputy U.S. Secretary of State, William Burns, and discussed with him bilateral relations and the importance of activating the work of the Joint Coordinating Committees between the two countries arising from the Strategic Framework Agreement.

The two sides also discussed developments in the Syrian crisis, and the Iraqi government plans for ending the provisions of Chapter VII concerning the situation between Iraq and Kuwait. The meeting also reviewed Iraq's positions of Iraq towards the events and global and regional developments.

Minister Zebari condemned the painful assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi - Libya and expressed his condolences to the victims of the attack.

[Ali - Iraq]

Libya adheres to establish diplomatic relations with Iraq
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) -Libya confirmed its commitment to establish wider relations with Iraq on all fields.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported in statement received by IraqiNews.com on Sunday that ”The Iraqi temporary Charg

[Sinjar]

Pakistan, Iraq working on mutual cooperation


Thursday, September 20, 2012

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Iraq are working on developing mutual cooperation in the field of science and technology.

This was said by visiting Iraqi Minister for Science and Technology Samir Al-Attar after discussion with the officials concerned here on Wednesday.He said that the two brotherly countries were ready to support each other in the fields of science and technology after a long pause of about two decades.

The Iraqi minister told ‘The News’ that he had come to explore the possibilities of future cooperation in space research. He said that the two countries must take advantage of the facilities available to them.

The minister, who will also visit Lahore before returning home, said that the two countries had an urge for cooperation and the authorities and ministries concerned must prepare comprehensive plan in this regard.

The minister said that Iraq was trying to make progress in all the fields as the normalcy had returned to the war-torn country. Iraqi Ambassador Dr Rushdi Al-Ani hosted a dinner in honour of the visiting minister at his residence in diplomatic enclave where Chief of Protocol State of Pakistan and Additional Foreign Secretary Ghalib Iqbal, Ambassador of Bahrain Muhammad Ebrahim Muhammad Abdul Qadir, acting High Commissioner of Canada Lajos Arendas, Australian High Commissioner Timothi George, Kuwaiti Ambassador Nawaf Abdulaziz A Alenezi, Charge d’ Affairs of Syria Dr Ali Muhra, Jordanian Ambassador Nawaf Saraireh, Dean Faculty of Natural Sciences of Quaid-i-Azam University Pir Qaiser Mushtaq and Executive Director Comsats Dr Imtinan Elahi Qureshi were also present on the occasion.

The Iraqi minister announced that his country would encourage exchange of scientists and students in various fields with Pakistan as both the countries would like to learn from each other’s experiences. The visit of the Iraqi minister marks the initiation of his government’s efforts to explore the world outside for enhancing scope of research and science in the country.

[Sinjar]

Tensions Between Turkey, Iraq Have Wide-Ranging Regional Implications

By Catherine Cheney, on 19 Sep 2012, Trend Lines

Last week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey would not extradite Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, who was sentenced to death in absentia by an Iraqi court.

As BBC News reported, Hashemi dismissed the charges against him as “politically motivated.” The most senior Sunni official in Iraq’s predominantly Shiite government, Hashemi was accused of running Sunni death squads.

The incident was the latest in a series of recent flare-ups between Ankara and Baghdad.

Henri Barkey, a professor of international relations at Lehigh University, mentioned a visit by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to Kirkuk, Iraq, last month as another cause of the recent spike in tensions. Baghdad, which was not informed of the trip in advance, criticized it as an inappropriate interference in Iraq’s internal affairs.

That incident, Barkey explained, came amid already existing strains over Turkey’s pursuit of separate oil deals with the Kurdish region in northern Iraq that bypass the central government.

Pointing to the expected attendance of Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani at Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party congress later this month as another provocation, Barkey said, “The Turks are really ratcheting up the tensions with [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri] al-Maliki.”

For Barkey, the closer ties between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan are one of the significant outcomes of Ankara and Baghdad growing further apart.

“In the old days, the Turks and Iraqis cooperated on the Kurds,” he said. “Now, the Turks and the Kurds are cooperating, not necessarily against Baghdad, but they see much more eye to eye than Ankara does with Baghdad, which is a revolution.”

Barkey added that the rising tensions, combined with changing security conditions on the ground in Iraq, also mean that Turkey can no longer play the important mediating role it once did in Iraq’s fractious domestic politics.

“The Turks were helpful in terms of counseling the Iraqi Sunnis to cooperate with the center, to not get involved in violence,” he said. “The conditions on the ground are not conducive to such a role anymore. There is a different dynamic -- much of the violence is al-Qaida generated, and Turkey has taken an anti-Maliki stance.”

More broadly, Barkey said, the increasing sectarian tensions in the region, on prominent display in neighboring Syria, are contributing to the worsening relations between Turkey and Baghdad.

Bilgay Duman, a researcher for the Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies in Ankara, Turkey, also pointed to the conflict in Syria as a reason for rising tensions.

“The uprising in Syria deteriorated Turkey-Iraq relations,” Duman explained, with Turkey supporting the mostly Sunni opposition and Iraq lined up behind President Bashar al-Assad, a Shiite.

Barkey added that the tensions between Turkey and Iraq will also play a role in any postconflict scenarios in Syria. “If the [Syrian] regime falls, you will have bidders for influence, and the Turks are maneuvering to be the most important players in the post-Assad period,” he said.

Duman expressed his belief that the conflict between the two neighbors would be temporary. “Turkey and Iraq have common interests in the region,” he said, explaining that both countries rely on each other for both economic and security reasons.

But Barkey seemed to think that the region’s ongoing crises are likely to strengthen the ties between Ankara and Iraqi Kurds, which will only serve to further anger Baghdad.

[Sinjar]

UK to Open Visa Office in Baghdad; Strengthen Ties

By Padraig O’Hannelly. Posted on 20 September 2012.
In his keynote address to the Iraq Finance 2012 conference in London, the UK’s Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint (pictured), announced that the British and Iraqi governments had taken practical steps to improve the working relationship between the two countries.

Refering to last week’s visit to Iraq by Foreign Secretary William Hague, he said the governments had agreed to establish a joint ministerial committee for trade and economic affairs.

The committee will consist of ministers from both countries and representatives of the private sector “to create an umbrella structure so that we can have a systematic dialogue on the ways in which we can open up the opportunities for British businesses engaging and investing in Iraq“.

He described the move as “extremely important initiative and very timely“.

The Minister also announced that the UK would open a visa application center in Baghdad before the end of October, an initiative that may address some of the visa concerns raised many times by Iraq Business News.

“This will make it much easier“, he said, “for Iraqi business people to enter [the United Kingdom] … and will substantially increase the amount of business we do with each other“.

He emphasised that both sides were “very keen to build the commercial investment relationship, and undepinning the growth of these commercial ties will of course be the financial services industry, without which we cannot have successful development in any known economic system“.

The Iraqi stock market is, he added, at the early stages of “what will be a major capital market by any standards“.

[sheytanElKebir]

the only way to squeeze turkey is for iraq to ban all imports from there. Will the kurds cooperate? or will Iraq have to setup border posts along the kurdish "border"?

[Sinjar]

Originally Posted by sheytanElKebir

the only way to squeeze turkey is for iraq to ban all imports from there. Will the kurds cooperate? or will Iraq have to setup border posts along the kurdish "border"?

The majority of Turkey's export to Iraq goes to KRG. If I'm not mistaken Iraq(with KRG) is the second biggest export market for them so it's not that easy to just make a ban and it will not benefit anyone.Turkey has a huge economy and will need more hydrocarbon energy in the future which both KRG and Iraq shouldn't let go.. Turkey is a vital strategic partner.. If the ban is implemented. The imports then would probably be replaced with Iranian products that has less quality than Turkey's..

[sheytanElKebir]

Originally Posted by Sinjar

The majority of Turkey's export to Iraq goes to KRG. If I'm not mistaken Iraq(with KRG) is the second biggest export market for them so it's not that easy to just make a ban and it will not benefit anyone.

KRG based traders are just middle-men for delivery to Iraq where the vast majoority of "export to KRG" ends up. Without the Iraqi "final destination" export to KRG would collapse.

Turkey has a huge economy and will need more hydrocarbon energy in the future which both KRG and Iraq shouldn't let go.. Turkey is a vital strategic partner.. If the ban is implemented. The imports then would probably be replaced with Iranian products that has less quality than Turkey's..

the same way turkey tries to squeeze Iraq... they should understand that Iraq can squeeze them back.

[Sinjar]

Originally Posted by sheytanElKebir

KRG based traders are just middle-men for delivery to Iraq where the vast majoority of "export to KRG" ends up. Without the Iraqi "final destination" export to KRG would collapse.

Why do they say 70% is to KRG then? Why not 100% since all the trade has to go through there? Different laws? Well then it shouldn't go through or else there is no point of the different trade laws between KRG and Iraq...

Originally Posted by sheytanElKebir

the same way turkey tries to squeeze Iraq... they should understand that Iraq can squeeze them back.

Yeah let's stop all bilateral relations and sit in the corner and sulk.. I'm sure that we can find better solutions than stopping the trade. Iran is not squeezing Iraq?..

[Sinjar]

Trade between Iraq and Jordan drops dramitically

September 20th, 2012, Al-Bawba Business and The Jordan Times

Trade exchange between Jordan and Iraq declined by 27 per cent during the first half of 2012 compared to the same period last year, Ministry of Industry and Trade Secretary General Maha Ali said on Wednesday.

In remarks during meetings of the 26th session of the Joint Jordanian-Iraqi Committee, which opened on Wednesday, Ali stressed the importance of reaching solutions to the challenges facing trade exchange between the two countries, and to follow up on the implementation of what the two sides agreed upon in the last session.

Emphasising the need to benefit from the opportunities available in the economic and trade agreements signed between the two countries, she called on Iraq to ratify the agreement signed between the two countries in 2009 for establishing a joint free trade zone.

Ali underlined the importance of facilitating procedures for registering pharmaceutical products in Iraq and expressed Jordan’s readiness to provide Iraqi personnel with training in the field of companies’ control, standards and metrology, investment, agriculture, customs and metrology.

Kathem Husseini, adviser at the Iraqi ministry of trade, expressed keenness to cooperate with Jordan and to discuss methods that enable the two sides to enhance cooperation in various fields.

He noted that his country plans to use the Aqaba Port due to the great pressure on the Iraqi ports.

He called on Jordan’s private sector to take part in the mega-projects that Iraq plans to carry out during the coming period.

During this week’s meetings, talks will focus on means to encourage Iraq to benefit from the facilities in the Aqaba Port.

According to the agenda, they will also examine means to boost expertise exchange in the field of competitiveness and to facilitate the flow of Jordanian vegetables to the Iraqi markets.

The agenda also include an article on supporting Jordanian companies which exported goods to the Iraqi public and private sectors before and after 1992.

In the industrial sector, representatives from both countries will also examine measures to activate a memorandum of understanding signed between the Iraqi ministry of industry and minerals and the Jordan Industrial Estates Corporation.

In the investment field, the two countries will sign an agreement between Jordan Investment Board and Iraq’s National Investment Commission on protecting investments.

Talks will also focus on the need to provide Jordan with a list of the goods allowed to be imported from Iraq to facilitate the flow of products between the two countries.

In the field of construction and housing, officials from both countries will examine measures to activate a memorandum of understanding signed between the Ministry of Public Works and Housing and the Iraqi ministry of construction and housing in 2009 on boosting bilateral cooperation.

[sheytanElKebir]

Originally Posted by Sinjar

Why do they say 70% is to KRG then? Why not 100% since all the trade has to go through there? Different laws? Well then it shouldn't go through or else there is no point of the different trade laws between KRG and Iraq...

no. all trade "transits" through kurdistan (the 100%). Much of it is sold to companies in kurdistan who then distribute it all over iraq (the 70%)

a small percentage is sold directly to traders / government in Iraq (the 30%).

But something like 85% of the turkish produce ends up in Iraq. FINAL DESTINATION.

Yeah let's stop all bilateral relations and sit in the corner and sulk.. I'm sure that we can find better solutions than stopping the trade. Iran is not squeezing Iraq?..

they don't hand over a convicted terrorist. we don't want their altunsa tomato puree! simples. the trade is ultimately ONE WAY. and the customer is always right.

[sheytanElKebir]

FOREIGN RELATIONS! NOT SECTARIAN RELATIONS. IS THE TOPIC OF THIS THREAD!

[sheytanElKebir]

if you ask me Iraq should treat all our neighbours who trod on us like shit.

Starting with Iran who still harbour ismail al lami and refuse to hand him over to Iraqi justice. Continuing to fund terrorist groups in Iraq like asaib ahl al haq and Hezbolah and JAM...

The gulf countries and Jordan and Sudan and Egypt who are harbouring Iraqi terrorists and terrorist funders despite INTERPOL red alerts against their names.

[haiderpass]

Originally Posted by Al-Hashimi

Great. The current useless government is busy destroying the past productive relationship with two neighbouring states (Turkey and Jordan). I wonder if it has anything to do with religious affiliation....But well there is always Iran. The 5 remaining neighbours are not important anymore and the master has been identified and found. (Iran).

They will probably be up for a very big surprise the day Iraqi Kurdistan and the Sunni majority provinces seperate, only to be left with the small South and the oil-rich al Basra province, unless they will join Iran as some probably wish to.

are you really that clueless when it comes to iraqi regional politics. perhaps you should consider your nations interests (if you truley consider yourself iraqi) before your neighbors interests who share your sect.

Turkey: Hostile neighbor FACT, harbouring a fugitive, repeated attacks against our government, illegal visit to a sensitive area (kirkuk), limit river flow, dumping low quality products into iraqi markets and the list goes on...
Jordan: Absolutely no problems, i'd like you to find one article stating otherwise.
Saudi Arabia: Wahabi cunts, nuff said
Syria: You should know this one, after all we are being punished by the arab media for NOT TAKING A SIDE.
Kuwait: Highest level of cooperation in last 2 decades

as for Iran, heres a list of how much we favour them when we award contracts.





btw, this is 2012 data

Hashimi, your like a republican, complete bullshit, no Facts, you should follow Clinton's remark, try to do some simple arithmetic.

[BigDreamer]

This thread has been cleaned up. Please follow the forum rules.

those who are involved will hear from me soon !

[sheytanElKebir]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...pe=marketsNews

Reuters) - Iraq has denied permission to a North Korean plane bound for Syria to pass through Iraqi airspace on Saturday because it suspects it could be carrying weapons, a senior official said on Friday.

Iraq on Thursday denied a Western intelligence report that said Iranian aircraft had flown weapons and military personnel over Iraqi airspace to Syria to help President Bashar al-Assad battle an 18-month-old uprising.

The allegation, reported by Reuters on Wednesday, said arms transfers were organised by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

"Continuing the Iraqi government policy to investigate the passing of weapons to Syria through Iraqi land and air space, the Iraqi authorities prevented a North Korean plane from going to Syria, after they suspected that the plane was shipping weapons," Ali al-Mossawi, media advisor to the Iraq's prime minister, told Reuters.

Moussawi said the scheduled plane's itinerary, from North Korea to Syria, was what had aroused suspicions but that there had been no contact between the Iraqi government and North Korea on the issue.

Mossawi said that despite repeated requests from the Iraqi side, the United States had not presented any evidence that Iranian civilian aircraft were shipping arms to Syria via Iraq.

"We have told the Iranians that we could search their planes any time, randomly, and whenever we get any evidence (that they are shipping weapons)," he said.

"We will seriously stop these plans (from passing through Iraqi space)," he added added.

Although charges that Iraq has allowed Iran to send arms to Syria are not new, the report said the extent of such shipments is far greater and more systematic than has been publicly acknowledged, thanks to a deal between senior Iraqi and Iranian officials.

The report also said Iran was dispatching trucks overland via Iraq westwards to Syria.

Syria's upheaval is politically tricky for Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim-led government. Close to Assad's ally, Shi'ite Iran, Baghdad has resisted joining Western and fellow Arab calls for the Syrian leader to step down while also calling for a reform process in Syria.

Iraqi leaders fear Assad's fall would fracture Syria along sectarian lines and yield a hostile, hardline Sunni Muslim regime that could stir up Iraq's volatile Sunni-Shi'ite mix.

Baghdad has reinforced key points along its 680-km (420-mile) desert border with Syria.

U.S. officials said earlier this month they were questioning Iraq about Iranian flights in Iraqi air space. On Wednesday, U.S. Senator John Kerry threatened to review U.S. aid to Baghdad if it does not halt such overflights to Syria.

[Al-Hashimi]

A bit late no? But at least that's a tiny step in the right direction. There should have been a strong condemnation the first several times when Iraqi airspace was violated and when that little girl was killed by grenades in Al-Qa'im.

I don't understand why Iraq was silently supporting Al-Assad and now are neutrals. They should have been against Al-Assad from the very beginning.

Pretty tragicomical that such an stance is shown towards a dictatorship ruled by Ba'ath members - who for a long time have been enemies of Iraq.

The same people who now support Al-Assad also suddenly forgot that Syria was a leading partner in the support of terror activities in Iraq and helped smuggle terrorists and weapons into Iraq.....

Then today we see a similar argument by those who support Al-Assad - just now a claim of FSA being terrorists (LOL) when it's actually AQI and other militant groups based in Iraq that are supporting the rebels and not the other way around.

Middle Eastern politics at it best.

[Sinjar]

Originally Posted by sheytanElKebir

no. all trade "transits" through kurdistan (the 100%). Much of it is sold to companies in kurdistan who then distribute it all over iraq (the 70%)

a small percentage is sold directly to traders / government in Iraq (the 30%).

But something like 85% of the turkish produce ends up in Iraq. FINAL DESTINATION.

why sell it to Kurdish companies first? To avoid Iraqi regulations?
If Baghdad has different trade law from Erbil then it shouldn't go through the border between them or else what is the point of making two different trade laws?

Originally Posted by sheytanElKebir

they don't hand over a convicted terrorist. we don't want their altunsa tomato puree! simples. the trade is ultimately ONE WAY. and the customer is always right.

I agree that Al-Hashimi should be handed over but stopping the trade will not necessarily lead to handing him over which will make the relations more tense then they already are..

[sheytanElKebir]

Originally Posted by Sinjar

why sell it to Kurdish companies first? To avoid Iraqi regulations?
If Baghdad has different trade law from Erbil then it shouldn't go through the border between them or else what is the point of making two different trade laws?

it is not only about import regulations, but many of the Iraqi companies have relocated to kurdistan to escape the violence in baghdad. they have the exclusive licences for many turkish companies, and thus most exports from turkey are listed as going to kurdistan.

there is no border/customs between kurdistan and iraq... one of the major loopholes as you know...

I agree that Al-Hashimi should be handed over but stopping the trade will not necessarily lead to handing him over which will make the relations more tense then they already are..

It'll certainly make turkey take notice of one of their major trading partners.