NETWORK REVEALS THE FATE OF THE CHINESE DEAL.. IT WAS DISRUPTED BY “IRAQI OFFICIALS” – URGENT
The Diplomat Network revealed in a report published today, Saturday (November 23, 2024), the fate of what is known as the “Chinese deal” under the Belt and Road Initiative launched by China to invest in Africa and the Middle East, confirming that the deal was “deliberately obstructed” by local Iraqi officials.
The network explained, according to what was translated by “Baghdad Today”, that some influential officials in the Iraqi government have begun to view with “concern” the increase in Chinese influence inside Iraq to unprecedented levels, stressing that “some Iraqi officials are concerned about the increased reliance on foreign investments to build Iraqi infrastructure, which weakens Iraq’s ability to make its strategic decisions.”
She continued: “The Iraqi government, like the rest of the Middle Eastern countries, is trying to maintain a difficult balance in its relations with the West and the East, in addition to maintaining its ability to make its strategic decisions with complete sovereignty, which may conflict with the presence of significant foreign influence on the Iraqi infrastructure sector internally,” according to her description.
The network also confirmed that the United States of America also views the growing Chinese influence in Iraq with another “concern”, explaining that the United States has spent about 90 billion dollars on Iraq since 2003, and thus has great influence on the Iraqi strategic decision and therefore opposes the growing Chinese influence inside Iraq, which is a competitor to its influence .
The Diplomat pointed out that the Chinese deal, which was concluded in 2019, included China rebuilding the infrastructure in Iraq with an investment of up to 10 billion US dollars, and in return the Iraqi government committed to giving China 100,000 barrels of oil per day for free for twenty years, which some local leaders in Iraq see as the country’s heavy reliance on China to implement and operate infrastructure projects, which leads to giving China influence over Iraqi strategic decisions, according to the statement.
It is noteworthy that Chinese officials confirmed to the network that the deal has been “temporarily suspended” due to the position of Iraqi officials, as some of them confirmed that China will try to “provide reassurances” to the Iraqi government during the coming period to begin implementing the deal, which the network described as “controversial” in Iraq.
(Remember post RV Iraq will also be on the hook to sell oil to the US at a fixed, low price for the next 30 years (oil credits from our exchanges). This is in part how Iraq is going to pay for the exchange of currency on revaluation. But this oil is not FREE as with China.)
