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Books on Iraq
REPUBLICAN REFERENCE
Area (sq.km)
437,072
Population
24,001,816 (July 2002 est.)
Capital
Baghdad
Currency
Iraqi dinar (IQD)
President
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Update No: 037 - (30/05/06)
Still wrangling over the cabinet
As the end of May approached, the new Prime Minister Maliki was forced to
present a partial cabinet to the parliament, with only interim Interior and
Defence ministers. While an agreement had been reached about the appointment of
non-factional Ministers of Interior and Defence, which was one of the key
demands of the non-Shiite groups in parliament, there is still a difficulty in
agreeing on the actual names of the ministers. Moreover, the two Sunni Arab
alliances openly stated their unhappiness about the share of power reserved for
them and some of their members walked out of the parliament at the time of
voting the cabinet. One of the demands of the Sunnis was the post of deputy
prime minister, which the Shiites and the Kurds wanted to give to Allawi, leader
of the secular block. In the end Allawi was appointed to the newly established
National Security Committee, but the Sunnis were still not satisfied. The
tension was also high within the Shiite alliance itself over the name of the Oil
Minister, one of the positions most sought after for rather obvious reasons.
This rise in the tension among Shiites happens at a time when the different
constituent components of this alliance are fighting over the control of the
governorate of Basra. The governor of Basrah is trying to fire the chief of
police and the commander of the 10th Division of the Iraqi Army. The relations
between the Kurds and the Shiites also keep worsening. In particular, the
Sadrist faction of the Shiite alliance, which espouses its own brand of Iraqi
nationalism, is adopting an increasingly confrontational attitude towards the
Kurds, having even deployed militiamen to the north in order to show their
opposition to the Kurds' claim to Kirkuk.
Oil sector crippled
After three years of sabotage, wrong policy choices and ineffective management,
the Iraqi oil sector looks in a worse shape than ever. A report issued by an
auditor of the Oil Ministry showed that delays in project implementation
resulted in only about one third of the work plan for 2005 having been
implemented. Some pipelines are in such a bad shape that they would not be able
to handle a higher volume of traffic if one day production of oil finally
increased. Just over the last 6 months of the last year, 50 million litres of
fuel disappeared after having been dispatched from the refineries. Oil products
whose worth is estimated at US$4.2 billion were smuggled out of Iraq last year,
on top of crude stolen from the pipelines. The prospects for better management
in the future look quite dim. Now the Kurds are advancing the idea that they
should have their own oil ministry covering the north of the country, which
would add to the difficulty of controlling the situation.
Losing hope?
Although opinion polls might not be worth much in the Iraqi context, those done
until last year were showing high levels of confidence among Iraqis that the
country was heading in the right direction, despite the violence. Not so
anymore. Now most Iraqis think, according to an IRI poll, that the country is
heading in the wrong direction. Also, the number of Iraqis who is optimistic
about the medium term future (5 years from now) is declining fast. The polls
showed also unhappiness about any reform aiming towards the reduction of
subsidies. The transition from a subsidies system to something resembling more a
modern welfare system has already started earlier this year, with the creation
of the Social Safety Net. It pays monthly benefits to unemployed and low-income
families, for a total of one million households, but so far the new scheme has
failed to take off under the weight of an unmanageable bureaucracy, leading to
more discontent about the supposed beneficiaries.
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