Iraq Oil Report

…if The New York Times is writing about it A1, top of the fold.

Also in today’s Iraq Oil Report, the U.S. wants to ink deals with Sadr while its top Anbar ally is assassinated.

But first, James Glantz writes the tender deal making on the law governing Iraq’s vast reserves seems to be falling apart as political leadership cannot find middle ground on the extent of federalism and foreign investment.

I’ve been explaining the rift since last year, and most recently Sept. 4 for UPI.

And, on Sept. 10 I wrote about the real dispute over the oil law is really a dispute over the new Iraq’s political and social identity and the pressure from the United States to pass the law quickly fails to take into consideration the monumental task at hand for Iraqi leaders.

Khalilzad responds

Former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, now at the U.N., writes a letter to the editor in the Washington Post, critiquing a recent article by Joshua Partlow that portrayed U.S. efforts in pushing the oil law in a negative light.

Khalilzad writes the U.S. was a mediator between Iraqi factions; a February agreement “was a major achievement”; political leaders agreed on the draft and “understood the inefficiency” of the Iraq oil nationalism of the past four decades and they, not the U.S., pushed for international investment opportunities in the oil sector.

Unfortunately, Khalilzad continues the company line, which incorrectly states that the oil law would also distribute the proceeds from sales of oil. That issue, which is a core tenant of the Bush/Congress benchmarks, will be decided in a separate revenue sharing law.

Background: Khalilzad held a press conference in February announcing the (brief) agreement on the draft oil law, which didn’t sit well with Iraqi’s. Amidst the accusations that the United States has their eye on Iraq oil, let alone went to war for it, it probably wasn’t the best idea for an American to announce to the world the deal was reached. Perhaps the government of Iraq would be a better messenger.

The KRG and Kirkuk

An analysis of the Hunt Oil/KRG deal in JURIST by Haider Ala Hamoudi, professor at University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

A major flashpoint in Iraq is the future of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk and other disputed territories. The KRG has stated repeatedly that a referendum, called for in the constitution, to decide whether the territories would join Iraqi Kurdistan’s territory is a must have by year’s end. It has roused suspicions from Baghdad to Sunni areas of western Iraq to Turkey, Iran and Syria that the Kurds want to consolidate power and then declare independence. Sumedha Senanayake of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports the referendum will be delayed.

Politics and Security

The United States is looking to reach a deal with powerful cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Sadr Movement political party and the Mahdi Army militia, Ned Parker writes in the LA Times

A similar move proved successful in Anbar province, where the local sheiks and tribes (the real power base in the country, largely ignored by U.S. policy for four years) have been convinced and supported to turn on al-Qaida in Mesopotamia. The success of that has been simplified by the Bush administration and eaten up by much of the U.S. media, and it will surely be compromised now that Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, the person the U.S. relied on in this movement, has been killed in a bombing at his home.
More details from Alissa J. Rubin of the International Herald Tribune.

Building a wall between a largely Shiite and a largely Sunni area in Baghdad does not sit well with Iraqis.

What the Iraqi media is saying: the Iraq Press Roundup by UPI’s Hiba Dawood
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