29 September 2006 It will be 2008, at the earliest, before Iraq’s southern provinces unite to form the giant oil-rich federal region that some Iraqi groups are calling for. That’s the deal reached this week by Shiite and Sunni lawmakers which, for now at least, averts further ethnic and religious strife over a Shiite-backed law outlining the mechanisms whereby Iraq’s provinces can form autonomous regions. But the arrangement, brokered by…
Tag: Talabani
Iraq Takes Heavy Toll on Oil Workers
6 November 2006 Three-and-a-half years after the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, some companies that had high hopes of business opportunities are shutting up shop after suffering heavy losses. US engineering giant Bechtel, which carried out $2.3 billion of work for the US in Iraq since April 2003, said last week that it was leaving the war-torn country after a spate of violence that killed 52 workers. Bechtel…
Federalism or Bust
15 September 2006 The debate over Iraqi devolution, which many regard as synonymous with carving the country up into autonomous mini states, has started. The principle was enshrined in the Iraqi constitution adopted last year. But as the stuttering launch of the parliamentary debate underlines, it’s not just the local drivers of the proposal — mainly Shiite groupings and, to a lesser extent, Kurds — whose interests are involved, regional…
Buying Time
29 September 2006 It will be 2008, at the earliest, before Iraq’s southern provinces unite to form the giant oil-rich federal region that some Iraqi groups are calling for. That’s the deal reached this week by Shiite and Sunni lawmakers which, for now at least, averts further ethnic and religious strife over a Shiite-backed law outlining the mechanisms whereby Iraq’s provinces can form autonomous regions. But the arrangement, brokered by…