KTFA:

Samson:  Parliament votes on three international conventions

3/4/2021 18:21

The House of Representatives voted on Thursday to join three international agreements.

A correspondent said that the House of Representatives voted on the draft law on the accession of the Republic of Iraq to the International Convention for Container Safety of 1972.  He added that the Council voted on the draft law on the accession of the Republic of Iraq to the Convention on the Recognition and Implementation of Foreign Arbitration Decisions (New York, 1958).

The House of Representatives voted on a bill amending the law on the accession of the Republic of Iraq to the International Convention on Road Traffic for the year 1968 and the European Agreement supplementing it for the year 2006 No. 30 of 2015.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives held its session in the presence of 240 deputies.  LINK

Samson:  Finance: Kurdistan has not submitted a financial statement of its revenues for 6 years

4th March, 2021

The Minister of Finance, Ali Abdul Amir Allawi, confirmed, on Thursday, that the Kurdistan region has not delivered a statement of its financial revenues since 2014.

According to a document seen by Al-Iqtisad News, in which the minister responded to a written question submitted by MP Faleh Khazali about the financial revenues of the Kurdistan region, where the minister responded by saying: "The Kurdistan region has not sent any table of revenues  from 2014 until 2020."

LINK

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Samson:  Pentagon: We may have to deploy additional forces to Iraq

3rd March, 2021

The US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) announced in a press briefing, on Wednesday, that it might be forced to "deploy additional forces in Iraq."

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that Washington would not hesitate to "respond to the Ain al-Assad attack after the investigation is over." Kirby revealed that America is investigating with Iraq "the party behind the attack on the Ain al-Assad base."

For its part, the White House said on Wednesday evening that it was still assessing the impact of the recent missile attack in Iraq, stressing that it would act again if the assessment concluded that the response to the missile attack was necessary.

The Pentagon said, earlier on Wednesday, that an American civilian contractor had died of a heart attack while sheltering from missiles fired at a base in Iraq.   LINK

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Because of fake loans ... arrest warrants for 14 employees of the Agricultural Bank in Maysan

4th March, 2021

Issued a court of inquiry for the consideration of integrity, Thursday, issues arrest warrants against 14 employees in the Agricultural Cooperative Bank Architecture Branch on charges of loans exchange fake.

According to the media center of the Supreme Judicial Council , in a statement received / scales News / copy of it, that "The court issued arrest warrants against 14 employees of the Agricultural Cooperative Bank, Al-Amara Branch, against the background of disbursing fake loans estimated at about two billion three hundred thousand dinars."

The media center added, "The warrants were issued in accordance with the provisions of Article 316 of the Penal Code."   LINK

Samson:  Pope Francis begins historic visit to Iraq

4th March, 2021

His Holiness Pope Francis begins tomorrow (Friday) a four-day visit to Iraq.

President of the Republic Barham Salih said that the visit will help bolster the values of tolerance and peace globally – not just in Iraq, adding that “the journey of Pope Francis to Mesopotamia will be a message of peace to Iraqis of all religions & serve to affirm our common values of justice and dignity.”

Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi affirmed that the visit of His Holiness the Pope will contribute to consolidating stability and will help foster a spirit of brotherhood in Iraq and throughout the region, and that the whole world values the dedication of His Holiness to peace, human dignity and to ending conflicts.

During his apostolic visit, the Pope will meet His Eminence Grand Ayatollah Al-Sayyid Ali Al-Husseini Al-Sistani in the holy city of Najaf, before travelling to Al-Nassirya in Dhi Qar province and hold interreligious prayer service at the Plain of Ur.

The Pope will then return to Baghdad where he will celebrate Holy Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in the capital.

During his visit to Iraq, the Pope will travel to Erbil where he will celebrate Holy Mass and to Mosul, where he will recite a prayer of suffrage for the victims of war.

His Holiness will also visit the Qaraqosh community at the Church of the Immaculate Conception. LINK

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Samson:  What makes Pope Francis' visit to Iraq historic?

4th March, 2021

When Pope Francis' plane lands in Baghdad, a historical moment has already been written, as he is the first Pope of the Vatican to visit Iraq, and thus the first great pontiff to make a pilgrimage to the land of Mesopotamia and hold the first spiritual summit with a Shiite reference of this level is Sayyid Ali al-Sistani. But the papal visit has other, no less important dimensions. By coming to Baghdad, Najaf, Dhi Qar, Nineveh and the Kurdistan region, the Pope is taking a risk that no spiritual leader has ever been before, in light of the security risks that threaten him, and in light of the outbreak of the Corona epidemic, due to which the Pope did not leave the Vatican traveling for more than a year, but despite that, he determined to come to Iraq.

Despite this symbolic importance of everything related to the Pope’s visit between 5 and 8 March, Iraqis in general of all races and religions are also looking forward to the hopes of change that the Pope may bring with him in order to improve their lives, their conditions, and their future tinged with tension and anxiety. The last serious attempt to come to Iraq was the days of Pope John Paul II, who sought in 1999 to visit Iraq, but the problems of the international blockade that was imposed, and the uproar caused by his intention to go to Baghdad during the era of former President Saddam Hussein, in addition to the inability of Iraq to secure hosting Aptitude for the Supreme Pontiff, was enough to topple the idea. Nevertheless, the Vatican maintained its fear of Iraq and all its sects, including Christians. While the drums of war were beating before the 2003 invasion, Pope John Paul II raised a voice against the use of the language of weapons. That is why Pope Francis is now completing a long, unfulfilled dream, and his "Iraqi message" must be resounding as he addresses everyone:

The Iraqi government: Mustafa Al-Kazemi's government will be called upon on his part to work on political, ethnic and religious reconciliations, and to try to move forward in building a capable and just state for all, in a way that helps Iraq get out of the quagmire of crises and turmoil. Muslims and Christians: that they are "all brothers", which is a call at the heart of Pope Francis' interest, and they are also sons of the Prophet Abraham who came to perform Hajj to him, confirming the call he launched in the Emirates in the year 2019, with the partnership of Al-Azhar, the representative of the Sunni world, and therefore the Christians Like their Muslim brothers, they are connected to this land, and their presence in it is natural and rooted.

The Shiite Majority: Through the meeting with the supreme authority, Ali al-Sistani, which is the highest level meeting between a Shiite authority and the great pontiff, Pope Francis hopes to strengthen the dialogue and communication that has existed for many years between the two parties, but he will certainly take advantage of his presence in Iraq and Najaf in order to pass a message, even implicitly. That the forces enjoying the majority in any country must strive by themselves to contain and embrace other minorities in society, not marginalize them, and equate with them in rights as well as duties.

Kurdistan Region: It is most likely that Pope Francis will remind the world of the suffering that this region experienced in the past decades, which led it to realize itself, and what it faced in the recent terrorist attack by ISIS, and the suffering of the displaced from all sects that embraced them. And there in Erbil, he will pray for them.

America and Iran: It is not the Pope’s habit to name countries by name, but he will make an appeal, knowing that the Iraqi government will be happy to hear it, to the expulsion of Iraq, the cradle of the heavenly religions and the incubator for many minorities and ethnicities, from regional conflicts and external interference.

In any case, Pope Francis, in everything he will do in Iraq, will have his eyes on the Christians, who are at the basis of Iraq's ancient identity and civilization, and their numbers have decreased dramatically since 2003, which threatens their existence. However, the unifying message will be the Pope's constant concern, and it is in order to spread hope in the souls of Iraqis, especially the youth, whose voice must have been heard in the protests that have been taking place in Iraq for more than a year.

From Baghdad to Najaf, then to the ancient city of Ur in Dhi Qar, where the Prophet Abraham was born - according to religious narratives - then to Nineveh Governorate and the Kurdistan Region, the Pope will march carrying the banner of peace, coexistence and brotherhood. The President of the Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, expressed the best of the meanings of the visit when he said that it would open a wider global door in the face of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, which is a source of relief for all components, and an opportunity to deepen the culture of coexistence, tolerance and acceptance of the other among all components.

Iraqis hope that the Pope’s visit will leave its clear political effects, both internally and externally, as well as its reflection on social stability. It is assumed that the visit of the Supreme Pontiff to Iraq reflects a positive image of the country that is overwhelmed by news of strikes and killings, in the world, and may enhance the confidence of Iraqis in their country and their government in a difficult phase that they are going through, including Muslims, Christians, Sabeans, Mandaeans, Yezidis, Assyrians, Arabs, Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites.

After the peak stage in the hardships that the Iraqis have lived in recent years, the Pope’s visit will be, as many hope, a contribution to healing the wounds, on the Iraqi Calvary Road, just as he tried by Saint Francis of Assisi during the thirteenth century, to overcome the pain of the Crusades - Islamic. The time has come for Iraq to defy death and turn its page. This was the long-term vision of the Vatican for what would happen to the Iraqis when it opposed the war 18 years ago, and it appears only that Pope Francis will reaffirm this message that wars are always a defeat for humanity.  LINK