Shafaq News / Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani is scheduled to visit Basra governorate on Saturday, accompanied by a delegation of ministers and federal officials, to inaugurate several major projects.
A government source informed Shafaq News Agency that Al-Sudani's visit will include the opening of the Azmara unit at the Shuaiba refinery, one of the most significant refineries in southern Iraq.
This visit follows Al-Sudani's previous trip to Basra on March 24, 2024, where he oversaw and launched numerous strategic and service-oriented projects in the governorate.
During his March visit, the Prime Minister inaugurated a rolling mill plant, part of the General Company for Iron and Steel, with an annual production capacity of 500,000 tons of various steel types. This plant had been inactive since 2003.
Additionally, Al-Sudani opened a urea fertilizer plant with a daily production capacity of 1,000 tons and a DAP fertilizer plant with an annual capacity of 500,000 tons, both under the Southern Fertilizer Company.
FIREFLY: Television is showing Sudani is asking questions about 57 trillion that was left over from the '23 budget and nobody seems to know where this money is...There is no end to the corruption. Obviously, our leader Sudani is protecting the monetary reform by not exposing the new exchange rate to these bad people. FRANK: 57 trillion dinars is missing from the budget of '23? ...Let's pray that he can find that money because if I was Sudani I'm not going to release any exchange rate. I'm not going to do anything with the contracts.
[Iraq boots-on-the-ground report]
FIREFLY: TV says the budget didn't go to the president for signature but to the publishing in gazette...When the budget is in the Gazette it will go live. So that means a new exchange rate will come soon to correct that new budget because it can't handle all of these projects at a program rate, correct?
FRANK: That is correct. It is also the monetary reform plan of Dr. Shabibi.
-----
FIREFLY:Television is showing a report on paper from IBBC on the de-dollarization inside of Iraq. They're telling us they've been doing it all this time...They even talk about that part from the World Bank discussion on changing the dinar exchange rate.It's powerful. This is all on the news.
FRANK: The monetary reform education to you citizens will get very loud...
FIREFLY:Sudani didn't say anything about the rate inside of the budget. They didn't say a word. COM didn't say anything. COM saw the budget with Sudani. We see them sitting there and they're looking it over but nothing is announced except the approval and that it's going to the House of Parliament now.
FRANK: You know very well what' going on. He will protect the budget until the very last nano second.
FIREFLY: The news has that specialist...talking about the best way to fill in the gap for the dinar and the dollar (illegal market). He's telling us the best thing for it to do this is to float...Saleh now talking saying the CBI is the only one that can control this needed float.
FRANK: They're going to float your currency because with a float they can come out at a higher rate than 1 to 1...this is a reinstatement of your exchange rate...The fact that they're talking about floating all day long...is because this is the next step in the monetary reform. Once they give you the new exchange rate and your new currency seconds later your currency will start to float...on international platforms
FIREFLY: The news has that specialist...talking about the best way to fill in the gap for the dinar and the dollar (illegal market). He's telling us the best thing for it to do this is to float...Saleh now talking saying the CBI is the only one that can control this needed float.
FRANK: They're going to float your currency because with a float they can come out at a higher rate than 1 to 1...this is a reinstatement of your exchange rate...The fact that they're talking about floating all day long...is because this is the next step in the monetary reform. Once they give you the new exchange rate and your new currency seconds later your currency will start to float...on international platforms
----
FIREFLY: Ever since Sudani came back from Washington DC he has been talking to us about metal coins and paper fils. He said the coins are both silver and gold...
FRANK: The monetary reform education is being presented to the Iraqi citizens...
FIREFLY: International Development Bank opens in Erbil.
FRANK: Notice how they are preparing your banks in many ways to receive the new exchange rate when Sudani releases it. They talked to you about the float...the basket... the lower notes...the old lower notes, your history...Now they're going to tell you Iraqi citizens about your banks...they are educating you on the many services that your banks will be offering you once this exchange rate is released.
FIREFLY: Television says Iraq is now producing 1 million liters of gasoline on a daily basis with the new refineries...They are saying we will have enough gasoline for our self sufficiency of our county and also for global trading on the market..
FIREFLY: They said our success is from the visit to the United States of America because it lifted almost all sanctions on our banks and others are close to being lifted too.
US expresses concern over Iraqi PMF compliance with military command
Shafaq News/ On Friday, the United States expressed concerns regarding the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq potentially "not adhering" to orders from the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, according to the United States Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller.
In a brief statement, Miller was asked about the joint operation between the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and the Yemeni Houthis.
"We do remain concerned that individuals within the PMF are not responsive to the Iraqi commander-in-chief and engage in violent and destabilizing activities in Iraq and Syria."
Miller considered the attacks against US and coalition service members, as well as Iraqi security service members and businesses, "undermine Iraq's security and economy." urging the Iraqi Government to rein in these individuals and hold them accountable for breaking Iraqi law.
"It has been our general policy to press the Iraqi Government to prevent attacks being launched on their soil, either against the Government of Israel or against United States interests or United States troops in the region."
After October 7, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq began a series of attacks against US bases in Iraq and Syria and Israeli sites in Palestine "in solidarity with the people in Gaza and the Palestinian resistance."
Since late May, businesses and restaurants associated with American brands have been targeted in a series of attacks. The latest incident occurred on Monday evening when individuals attacked restaurants on Palestine Street in central Baghdad. Previous attacks have targeted various American-brand establishments across the capital.
Within a week, the Iraqi Ministry of Interior reported incidents of sabotage and homemade explosive devices targeting various locations in Baghdad, including KFC, Liz Jolie House, the Cambridge Institute, and the Caterpillar Company in the al-Karrada district. The perpetrators, riding motorcycles and vehicles, have been arrested and are affiliated with a security agency.
Article: "It confirmed its commitment to money laundering standards.. The Iraqi National Bank: We do not deal with companies suspended by the Central Bank" Does this article give anyone the impression that the CBI or the Government would have allowed for over half of the countries money supply to be stolen and or disappear? Think about the insanity that would be at this stage and level of banking the CBI is at today. With having the line up of the most professional Auditors in the world in Iraq's books, let alone the UST, US FED, IMF, WB, UN, etc.. It wouldn't happen.
If all you [Iraqi citizen] own is dollars and they change the value to a real effective exchange rate, back to where it was in the previous era, they say back to 1980...Sudani said the dollar is going to be weaker or he said it in a way that the dinar is going to be stronger than the dollar...That's the whole goal. You drop the three zeros from the currency, you're going to add value. That's all there is to it. That's how it works. That's just not my opinion as far as I'm concerned.
--
Article: "The delete the Iraqi dinar zeros reoccurring invitation and existing challenges"
That was February 25, 2024. It's sill in the the news this year. July 26, 2023 Al-Alaq said the project
still existed... Quote: "When this is done correctly we can expect Iraq to become a strong dinar that is considered a store of value and perhaps even stronger than the dinar that was before 1980." That's a pretty big deal...
Article: "Parliamentary Finance resumes its meetings regarding the budget in preparation for voting on the schedules" Quote: "Parliament decided, according to the agenda, to hold its twenty-seventh regular session next Monday..." I am not sure how long voting will take on the paragraph. But, if they are going to vote to do a budget at 1310 that would have a deficit of 64 trillion that would not be good for the people and they want to see another term in office they'll need the 3 zeros to be removed from the exchange rate. If there isn't a removal by Al-alaq they'll be in a pickle be sure.
That vote [scheduled Monday 3:00pm Baghdad time vote on the 2024 budget tables]is prior to markets opening in the United States in New York. Will they vote? Will they do it? We're going to find out.
The House of Representatives will vote next Monday on the budge schedules...We've been waiting for it... Is it important? Is it not important?----
Obviously it's a focus. Article Quote: "Mustafa ... announced the House of Representatives intends to vote on the financial budget tables for the year of 2024...It will be held at 3:00 in the afternoon on Monday."
I don't think anybody's going to be able to prove me wrong, you drop the three zeros, the exchange rate changes from 1 USD to 1.32 just like al-Sudani says. Do the math it comes out to .76, apply the real effective exchange rate and that's where the show starts big time... .76 is $0.76 - it's slightly less than the dollar.
That's value. It's not .0007 something. It's value. That's what they're talking about - Bringing value to the currency. That's what Al-Alaq is there for.
Article quote: "If we assume the Central Bank issues a new currency this will not affect the exchange rate of the Iraqi dinar."
This guy is not wrong...It won't in my view. The exchange rate will affect the new small denominations though...If they change the value of the exchange rate by dropping the three zeros, therefor the new denominations will be affected by it, which will be value. It's pretty simple.
If you raise the value of the currency it's going to have a ripple effect...Instead of being a pebble...or a brick in the pond this might be a boulder. There's going to be some waves. The World Bank, IMF, US Fed, US Treasury...Bank of International Settlements, everybody's going to need to know what you're going to do and when you're going to do it and pretty close.
They're not going to be broadcasting it like everybody thinks, 'What's the date and what's the rate?' That's not how it works. But we study it close enough to where...we can see it can't be far off...
If they're going to have liquidity and they don't have it now it's going to require new small category denominations to be in circulation. Just as al-Alaq's project to delete the zeros would require new denominations. Did they do that in 2018 and have them in storage? I believe they did...
They increased that gold supply by about 40 tons...Their currency reserves are around $110 billion. They have a massive amount of wealth. They have the ability to support their imports for about 16 months they say, which is about 5x what they need. That's important. They don't want to reduce those. They'd like to keep them on hand...Iraq has a good foundation for Alaq to do what he's supposed to do and it'll only get better if he does.
If they change the value of their currency they're going to have more surpluses...The oil price is about $70 in the 2023 budget. That hasn't changed for '24 or '25 because that's a tripartite budget. They got a surplus. Oil is somewhere around $80. It's been as high as $91ish. The expectations of oil is to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $80/$90 and they even talk about $100/barrel...Iraq is going to be sitting pretty good...They have phosphates...sulfur...natural gas...Those non-oil revenue streams...taxes and tariffs are going to come online...Iraq has a good foundation for Alaq to do what he's supposed to do.
Iraq is moving forward. They've got huge reserves...increased their gold, they're going to have the private sector, their stock exchange is going to be one to reckon with. It's an emerging market and a lot of money is going to be start flowing...
If they go on the Forex system it's going to be international. It's going to be fast and furious.
Could they do something within the county prior to that?
Sure, why not, educate the citizens, do what they got to do...
Question: People want to know if they can drag this out until next year?
Militia Man: We don’t know the timing. But, I don’t think we are even close to go that long. There is way too much going on in the world and this is not only about Iraq. Remember all boats rise with the tide...I believe Iraq is ready to go with the rest of the world. Along with other countries like the Vietnamese dong.
Are they going to change the value of their currency...?
I'm pretty sure they are going to need to to pay for all these [reconstruction] objects...rebar, the cement - all that stuff is expensive at 1310. It's not so expensive if it's back at a 'previous era'....If they have the true value, their real effective exchange rate, it's going to be far cheaper...
Thi Qar on the verge of becoming nuclear-free: A first in Iraq
On Friday, Shafaq News / The Directorate of Environment in Thi Qar governorate announced that it has treated 99% of radioactive materials and is continuing to work to declare the governorate free of nuclear materials.
This is being done through a project that is the first of its kind in Iraq.
A high-level delegation specializing in nuclear energy, led by the Prime Minister’s Advisor for Atomic Energy Affairs Hamed Al-Bahili, arrived in Thi Qar today. They were received by the Deputy Governor of Thi Qar Razzaq Kashish and several local government members.
The delegation held a joint conference with the government of Thi Qar where they confirmed that “the purpose of this visit is to review the final procedures to complete the environmental quarry and declare Thi Qar free of nuclear materials.”
The delegation indicated that “all radioactive materials have been transferred to the environmental quarry where 99% of it have been treated so far, while the remaining will be treated today.”
The Director of Environment in Thi Qar Mohsen Aziz told Shafaq News Agency, “The delegation’s visit aims to ensure the ongoing work on establishing a permanent quarry for radioactive pollutants and treating them permanently in Thi Qar.”
He added, “The delegation coordinated with the governorate on this matter earlier, and in the coming days, the Iraqi government will announce that Thi Qar is free of radioactive materials, following Basra, Maysan, and al-Muthanna.”
Aziz pointed out that “the nuclear quarry is 55 km away from the borders of the Nasiriyah municipality in the southern desert of the governorate, and covers an area of nine dunams.”
Aziz continued, “Thi Qar is working on establishing this regulatory quarry to get rid of nuclear pollutants, which is the first of its kind in Iraq, as it is within the international specifications for radioactive pollutants.”
He explained, “The financing of the quarry’s construction was by the Council of Ministers and implemented by the Atomic Energy Authority affiliated with the Ministry of Higher Education.”