"Tidbits From TNT" Saturday 8-12-2023

TNT:

CandyKisses:  Iraq resorts to Interpol to pursue 4 of those involved in the theft of the century

Baghdad - Iraq Today:

The Economist magazine published a report in which it said that the Iraqi authorities, motivated by the magazine's recent revelations about the theft of $ 2.5 billion of state funds, called on America, Britain and Interpol to help arrest and extradite suspects in the case on the territory of those countries.

The magazine explained in a report translated by Iraq Today, that there are four senior figures in the previous Iraqi government under Mustafa Al-Kazemi wanted in the case, namely former Finance Minister Ali Allawi, Raed Johi, director of the former Prime Minister's Office, private secretary Ahmed Najati, and adviser Mashreq Abbas who live in Dubai, London and Washington.

Responsibility for further action has been transferred to Western and Middle Eastern governments.

Iraqi courts have previously confiscated property belonging to former acting finance minister Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar, who opened the investigation, and businessman Nur Zuhair was released on bail last November and also traveled abroad.

Kadhimi's allies say the ongoing manhunt is a Sudanese manhunt to distract from allies of the current government, who are also suspected of corruption.

The magazine quoted people close to Kadhimi as saying, "The leaders of Shiite groups who support al-Sudani worked with Zuhair to raise funds."

Corruption has been a staple of Iraqi politics since the Americans toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, but the massive tax fraud described in the magazine report shows Iraqis for the first time in detail how state coffers were stormed.

"Politicians across the ethnic and sectarian spectrum have united to smuggle hundreds of billions of dollars in oil and tax revenues."

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Tishwash:  Iranian official: Conditions are ripe for the start of Saudi investments in our country

 An Iranian official considered, today, Saturday, that conditions are ripe for Saudi investments to start in Iran and vice versa, with his country's new ambassador starting his duties in Riyadh.

The Assistant for Economic Diplomacy Affairs at the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mahdi Safri, pointed to the visit of the Iranian Minister of Economy, Ehsan Khandozi, to Saudi Arabia, and his meetings and talks there, saying, "From our point of view, the atmosphere is very appropriate, and we hope to accelerate progress."

Safri added, "On the other hand, there are many Iranian steel factories also looking to invest in Saudi Arabia jointly," noting that "Iran can export steel products, fruits, vegetables, ceramics, porcelain, and building materials to Saudi Arabia, as the country has good capabilities and capabilities in the field of Steel, production of nanomedicines, biotechnology, medical equipment, etc.

He pointed out that "the conditions are also ripe in Iran for investment in the construction of hotels and others, and in general the atmosphere is favorable for trade and export of engineering services."

On March 10, Saudi Arabia and Iran announced the agreement, sponsored by China, to resume their diplomatic relations, which were severed 7 years ago.  link

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CandyKisses:  Chinese company wins oil exploration contract in Iraq

Baghdad - Iraq Today:

A subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has won a 1.4 billion yuan ($194 million) engineering, construction and procurement contract to drill wells in Iraq's Rumaila oil field, as Iraqi authorities seek to open up to developing the oil industry and increasing fuel production with the energy crisis the world is going through, especially after the Ukrainian war.

Daqing Drilling Engineering said in a statement on its official WeChat account that this was the largest offshore contract it had received in the past five years.The statement did not say how many wells the company would drill under the contract.

Dacheng began drilling wells in the Rumaila field in 2010, shortly after CNBC and BP signed a 20-year service contract with Baghdad to develop the giant oil field.

A government oil official said in November that Iraq planned to increase its oil production capacity to about seven million barrels per day in 2027, with the main increases coming from the Rumaila and West Qurna-2 fields.

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Member:  Baghdad and Erbil... a near solution 8/12

The regional government has not yet touched on receiving its share of the general budget, despite the federal government's launch of the three-year budget allocations. While Kurdish deputies and officials attributed the reasons for this to the delay in the terms of agreement regarding the budget, pointing to the necessity of the region's commitment to the agreements concluded in this regard.

The former Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance for the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Fadel Nabi Hassan, attributed the reason for the budget problem to the fact that the Kurdistan region has not taken its share of the general budget so far because it has not issued instructions for its implementation and other problems, including some items that he described as “provocative”, adding that with this, things are moving toward a solution.

A prophet added, in an interview with "Al-Sabah", that "there are interpretations of non-oil revenues as sovereign revenues, and the problem is that the region limits sovereign revenues only to customs revenues, i.e. border crossings," noting that "the financial administration divides 50% for the region and 50% for the center, while he sees The center states that the regular revenues are sovereign revenues, that is, all customs, taxes and fees in full, except for some simple fees that were imposed by some governorates after 2015.

While the former deputy Rezan Sheikh Dalir pointed out that "the implementation of the Kurdistan region's budget requires the region's commitments and agreements with it regarding the budget and its share of oil to be delivered in line with the size of the budget allocated to the region and the rest of the non-oil imports that the region must inform Baghdad about."   link

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