May 29, 2005

Al-Mu'tamar newspaper cites Dr Baqir al-Hasani, the Iraqi council chairman for medical specialization, as saying that the Arab Council for Medical Specializations has agreed to cancel all Iraqi debts.

May 27, 2005

Jubilee Iraq participated in the General Union of Oil Employees first conference on privatisation, held in Basra 25-26th May. We explained the way debt is traditionally used as a lever by the IMF and others to force through economic reforms such as privatisation. The concluding statement of the conference picked up on this, calling on "all countries to remit the odious debts undertaken by the previous regime, without condition and without infringing the independence, sovereignty and economic self-governance of Iraq."

Greg Mullett, of UK-based NGO Platform, gave an excellent paper on Oil Production Sharing Agreements, which can be a subtle form of privatisation on terms which are bad for Iraq.

May 21, 2005

Following a visit to Baghdad by Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi, the countries issued a join statement: "Both parties agreed on the need to try former Iraqi regime leaders for war crimes, crimes against humanity and military aggression against the people of Iran, Iraq and Kuwait." Saddam and 11 senior aides in custody with him had previously only faced charges relating to the nvasion of Kuwait and operations inside Iraq against Kurdish and Shiite rebels. Iranian media put this spin on the statement: "It was the first time Iraq had accepted responsibility for the Iran-Iraq war."

Iran announced that it will continue to pursue the payment of reparations by Iraq for the 1980-88 war, stressing that the issue will be raised at the due time. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told IRNA that certain important outstanding issues pertaining to Iraq's imposed war against Iran, particularly the issue of reparations, will remain in the agenda of the Iranian government. Asefi, speaking in reaction to the recent remarks by the Iraqi government spokesman, said the war was the fruit of the hostile policies of Saddam Hussain and the Baath regime. However, he stressed that Iran will not forgo the issue of reparations which have resulted because of the war. "The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran cannot ignore the undeniable rights of its citizens who have suffered numerous losses in this war," he said.

May 18, 2005

Prime Minister Jaffari is in Turkey on his first international trip. The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported today that some tough bargaining is expected over an outstanding $1.7bn debt to Turkish firms, mostly for fuel provided since the March 2003 allied invasion of the country. Debt aquired since the fall of Saddam is not currently part of the Jubilee Iraq campaign. Previous reports have suggested Turkey may claim around $1.8bn in Saddam era debt, but there has been no information on this claim recently.

May 17, 2005

Iraqi newspaper Al-Hayat today gives an interview with Vice-President, and former Finance Minister, Adil Abdal Mahdi, talking mainly about the debt which he says "were the result of the wrong policies the former regime followed for several decades and which rendered its resources uselessly shackled."

He continues that in order to resolve "the debts issue, action is needed to... provide a new system for economic reform, and foremost of all the reform of the government subsidies system that is costing the Iraqi budget billion of dollars every year".

Aside from the Paris Club debts, he gave the figure of $18bn for commercial claims and $51bn for GCC claims, though he stressed these figures are not final, audited or documented but just represent what the creditors are demanding. He added that CitiBank and Morgan Stanley have been
appointed as Iraq's financial representatives and advisers for this issue.

He then said that Iraq would soon start talks with the Gulf countries about its debts to them "after we found that these countries have the desire to resolve this issue with Iraq to help it move economically towards the future. We felt this at several of the direct meetings we had with these fraternal countries' officials."

He optimistical said he expected the debts would eventually be reduced to between $10-15bn, saying the "overall expected reduction in Iraq's debts might be more than 100bn dollars out of the debts of 120bn dollars." Saying he hoped "that agreement will be reached during the coming 2 years on
the issue of Iraq's debts and the ways of paying them after we
prepare ourselves to agree with the IMF about the post-conflict
emergency assistance programme." He added that the debts issue is linked to the issue of investment and international aid and grants to Iraq.

For the Paris Club debt, he said Iraq has a grace period of 3 years and
another period of 3 years of low repayments to be followed by 23
years of normal repayment.

May 05, 2005

New Finance Minister Ali Allawi told Reuters in his first interview that “The most important issue as far as outside financial policy is the debt. Much progress has been made but there is lot of work to be done especially as far as debt owed to Arab, especially Gulf, countries and other commercial debt."

On reparations he said: “We will obviously expect the need to renegotiate the reparation payments but, meanwhile, we are committed to maintain whatever treaty Iraq has entered into."

He said one of his priorities was reform subsidies: “Without price reform the Iraq economy will be built in a flawed way. One cannot distribute resources and take investment and consumption decisions if they do not reflect real prices, the real cost and world prices." The 58-year-old former banker and World Bank investment officer said the IMF could raise its $436m assistance to Iraq if it was convinced of the government's seriousness about economic reform.