"Tidbits From TNT" Monday 8-22-2022

Aug 22

TNT:

Tishwash: The most important files that Al-Kazemi will present at the Arab mini-summit

Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi will visit Egypt today, Monday, to attend a mini-Arab summit.

And the official agency stated: "Al-Kazemi will confirm to the mini-Arab summit his government's endeavor to continue supporting dialogue between brothers in the region. He will also confirm Iraq's keenness to continue the policy of balance in relations and security stability in the country."

She added, "Al-Kazemi is looking forward to strengthening cooperation frameworks between Iraq and Egypt, whether at the bilateral level or within the framework of the comprehensive Arab cooperation mechanism."

It is noteworthy that Al-Kazemi will participate in the mini-summit that will be held in El Alamein, Egypt, in the presence of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, King of Jordan Abdullah II, King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, and President of the UAE Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. link

CandyKisses: The situation of Iraq on the table of the Egyptian “El Alamein” summit

Shafaq News / The city of El Alamein, west of the Egyptian governorate of Alexandria, will host tomorrow, Monday, a mini-Arab-Egyptian summit, in the presence of leaders of 5 countries: Iraq, the UAE, Bahrain, Jordan and Egypt.

This summit comes at the invitation of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, within the framework of continuous coordination and consultation between these countries, to serve joint Arab action and push Arab relations to an advanced level, to face various current international and regional challenges.

Shafaq News Agency has learned that the Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, will be in Egypt in the coming hours to participate in the summit, which will discuss security and intelligence files, in addition to economic and political files, and the situation in the region in general.

The President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, arrived earlier today in the Egyptian city of El Alamein, and the official Jordanian TV confirmed the participation of King Abdullah II in the summit.

Last March, the Jordanian capital, Amman, hosted a four-way summit in which the leaders of the UAE, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq participated.

The El Alamein summit will witness the discussion of a number of regional issues, on top of which are "the Palestinian issue, the situations in Iraq, Libya and Yemen, and the need to reach a political solution in Syria, as well as the continuation of the Renaissance Dam crisis," according to the Arabic "Sky News".

A member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Rakha Hassan, said that "the summit will consider the political confusion in Iraq, the Palestinian issue and its recent developments, in addition to the impact of the United States' return to the Iranian nuclear file on the region, as well as the change in Turkish policies and the presentation of a breakthrough with Syria, as well as the position inflamed in Libya.

While the former Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister, an expert in international relations, Hussein Haridy, confirmed during his speech to "Sky News" that the summit "sends a message that the Arab countries are alert to the changes taking place in the region, and have the political will to defend their interests, It will address, in an overview, the current developments at the level of the region, the Gulf, the Red Sea, North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, the developments in Syria and Iraq, and how to provide support to the Palestinian cause as it is the central issue of the Arabs.

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Tishwash: Parliamentary Finance: The Food Security Law needs final accounts

The Parliamentary Finance Committee confirmed, on Monday, that the Food Security Law needs final accounts.

Committee member Jamal Kougar told the official newspaper and its independent follower, “If the Food Security Law is dealt with as a budget or part of a budget, it needs final accounts, because without the final accounts there is no control over the disbursement of funds.”

Cougar added that “in the event of delay in approving the budget, the government goes to the 1/12 exchange rule because the Food Security Law did not indicate that it is a financial law, and there is no operational or investment side in it, that is, there are no fixed amounts that are repeated annually while the budget law exists It is 75% operational.”

And the Parliamentary Finance member added, “The law ends at the end of the year, like all financial laws, except for the operating budget,” noting that “in the event that it is agreed to hold early elections, in all cases, we need six months, and the government is supposed to prepare the final accounts of this law link

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Tiswhwash: Between oil and construction... China is consolidating its presence in Iraq

In Iraq, rich in oil and poor in infrastructure, China has found a foothold. In addition to the work of its companies in the oil field, it is building schools and an airport in projects that this country needs, but it puts it in the face of the risk of falling into a debt trap with Beijing in a not so distant time.

The Chinese presence in Iraq is not new. But Beijing has recently diversified and expanded its projects in this country that has suffered from wars and conflicts for more than forty years.

John Calabrese, director of the Middle East and Asia Project at the Middle East Institute, told AFP that "Iraq is in dire need of foreign investment, especially in the field of energy infrastructure."
Here, China found an opportunity.

The People's Republic needs to secure its energy needs, diversify its sources, and become the first importer of Iraqi oil. It alone imports 44 percent of Iraq's oil exports, according to the Prime Minister's advisor, Mazhar Salih, to the Iraqi News Agency.

In the field of energy, "the situation is active," says Chinese Ambassador Cui Wei in response to a question by AFP at a press conference. But he adds, "We are still in the stage of entering Iraq and cooperating with the Iraqi side, as well as with foreign companies operating in Iraq."

"In terms of the number and value of projects" in the energy field, Cui explains, "the Chinese side is still at the beginning stage."

John Calabrese believes that behind the clear commercial goals, "there also lies China's ambition to showcase its work, polish its image and deeply entrench itself in a country and region dominated by the West, especially the United States" for a long time.

"Belt and Road"

In 2019, Iraq became one of China's partners in the "Belt and Road" initiative, with the two countries signing an agreement in this regard.

The "Belt and Road" initiative aims to build marine and land infrastructure projects that better connect China with Asia, Europe and Africa.

But the West sees it as a tool to enhance China's influence in poor countries, denouncing in particular the fact that these projects have accumulated large debts on those countries. Westerners also suspect corruption and human rights abuses.

A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry told AFP that "China is actively participating in the reconstruction of the Iraqi economy," stressing that Baghdad is an "important partner" in the "Belt and Road" initiative.
Within the framework of this initiative, Iraq "remained the third most important partner" of China in the energy sector "between 2013 and 2022."

For example, in the Maysan Governorate in southern Iraq, the Halfaya field is being developed with a consortium of companies led by the Chinese state-owned PetroChina, along with the French Total and Malaysia's Petronas, as the director of the Maysan Oil Company explained in a statement to the Iraqi News Agency.

As for trade exchange between the two countries, it is booming and amounted to $30 billion in 2020, the Iraqi News Agency quoted an official at the Chinese embassy as saying.

Given the importance of infrastructure reconstruction, many projects undertaken by China in this field fall within the framework of the agreement signed between the two countries in 2019 under the title "Reconstruction for Oil". Among these projects, a thousand schools and an airport in Nasiriyah.

In the city of Nasiriyah in southern Iraq, Power China is working on one of these schools. It is one of two Chinese companies implementing a project to build eight thousand schools in total in three phases, the first phase of which includes 1,000 schools in 15 Iraqi provinces.

Language lessons

These projects are financed by Iraq's sale of 100,000 barrels of oil per day to China, whose revenues are deposited in an account managed by the Central Bank of Iraq in China. These proceeds can only be used in projects carried out by Chinese companies exclusively in Iraq.

Chinese companies should also work with local Iraqi contracting companies "to provide manpower and raw materials," as explained to AFP, spokesman for the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, Haider Majid.
Yasar al-Maliki, an economist at the Middle East Economic Survey, considers that providing job opportunities for Iraqi labor is a "positive thing", but "there are rumors that the majority of Iraqi companies are politically connected, and are unknown, so there are fears of corruption."

Majeed said there were plans to also include "roads, bridges, railways, energy, oil and health projects" in the agreement.

But al-Maliki warns that "the Iraqi authorities use the agreement in useless projects, and end up with many debts, as is the case in many African countries."

China also attracts Iraqis who want to learn its language. From here, the Iraqi-Chinese Friendship Society established the only Chinese language institute in Iraq, with the exception of the Kurdistan region, less than a year ago.
On the study benches here are students wishing to complete their education in China, and merchants who import their goods from this country. As for the teacher, Sajjad Al-Qazzaz, 25, he learned the language during the six years he studied medicine in China.

"When I came back to Iraq from China, I found that many people want to learn Chinese," says Al-Qazzaz.
The majority of the students are traders like Laith Ahmed. "I own a company that imports electrical appliances from China," the man says.

He added, "I always go there and find it difficult to deal with the Chinese because most of them do not speak English, so I decided to learn Chinese to make it easier to communicate with them." link