MINISTER OF ELECTRICITY DISCUSSES WITH US CHARGÉ D’AFFAIRES THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENERGY SYSTEM IN IRAQ
Today, Wednesday, the Minister of Electricity, Ziad Ali Fadhil, discussed with the Chargé d’Affairs of the US Embassy the development of the electricity system in Iraq.
The media office of the Minister of Electricity said in a statement received by “Al-Eqtisad News”, “The Minister of Electricity, Ziad Ali Fadhil, received in his office the Chargé d’Affairs of the US Ambassador to Iraq, Daniel Rubinstein, and a number of joint files in the electric power sector were discussed,” noting that “the Minister reviewed during the meeting the ministry’s strategic plans to develop the electricity system, improve the energy situation in Iraq,
and the vital projects that the ministry intends to implement during the next stage.”
He added, “During the meeting, the two sides discussed the investment opportunities available in the Iraqi energy sector, the participation of American companies in electricity infrastructure development projects, and the transfer of modern technologies in the field of production, transmission and distribution of electrical energy.”
(Oh… is Iraq finally going to get serious about getting the entire grid back up and running. Its only been 20 years since the war ended…lol..lol.. Is the Trump pressure working?)
Let's...see where we stand... we've heard from different sources about four or five different sources that came in with very similar information and the overall consensus is that...
it's ready to be started or ready for us to receive notifications...
the next piece of intel that we received from a US, Space Force contact that said that we would be exchanging...according to this source, no later than Saturday...the 15th of the month.
RUSSIA: WE WERE ABOUT TO COMPLETE IMPORTANT ENERGY PROJECTS IN IRAQ, BUT THE EVENTS OF 2004 LED TO THEIR SUSPENSION
Elbrus Kotrashev, the Russian Federation’s ambassador to Iraq, confirmed that the decision to evacuate hundreds of Russian experts from Iraq in 2004 came after Russian teams working in the country were directly exposed to terrorist attacks.
During his interview on the “Qasary Al-Qawl” program with Salam Musafir on RT Arabic, on the occasion of “Diplomats’ Day,” he explained that “these attacks resulted in the martyrdom and injury of a number of experts, including Iraqis, which prompted the Russian authorities to take the decision to evacuate to protect the lives of its citizens.”
“Russian companies were about to complete important projects in Iraq that began before 2003, especially in the energy sector, but the painful security events that occurred in 2004 led to the suspension of these projects and the evacuation of more than 900 Russian experts,” Kotrashev added.
He continued: “After that, there was a long interruption in cooperation due to the turbulent security situation,
but we want to continue the work and complete it successfully, especially since we are witnessing the suffering of the Iraqi people due to the scarcity of electricity.”
Despite these challenges, the Russian ambassador stressed that relations between Baghdad and Moscow, which date back 80 years, are still strong and distinctive at all levels, describing them as going through their most beautiful stages in terms of the level and strength of cooperation. He pointed out that cooperation between the two countries covers multiple fields, including energy, education and culture.
Regarding cultural exchange, Kotrashev expressed Moscow’s desire to open a Russian cultural center in Iraq, as it was during the Soviet era, explaining that the delay in this step is due to logistical reasons, not political or economic. He also spoke about educational cooperation between the two countries, noting that the number of Iraqi students in Russian universities ranges between 2,500 and 4,000 students.
Regarding cooperation in the energy sector,
the ambassador pointed out that Russian investments in the Iraqi oil and gas sector amount to about $20 billion, and may be more. He stressed that Russia leads oil investments in Iraq, surpassing the United States and China, expressing his optimism about the possibility of expanding these investments in the future.
Regarding the possibility of a visit by a senior Russian official or President Putin to Iraq, Kotrashev said: “I hope the visit will be great, and I expect a warm welcome from the Iraqi government and people, but I do not know if it will happen soon because the president is busy with domestic and international issues.”
You want to find out every perk, everything that they're going to do for you. First of all, how are you going to exchange my currency?
Are you going to charge me a fee to exchange it? They'll tell you, yeah, 1%, 2%, 3%. Wait a minute, before we even go any further, I got to ask you a question, do you think it's fair for you to charge me to exchange this currency when I'm going to put it in your account and you're going to make money with it right away?
Aren't you making money off my money? And then you may freeze my account for 30 days...You want to charge me for putting it in your bank? I tell you what, I've got one or two options.
I'm either going to say goodbye to you right now and go to another bank and see what they got to offer me or you're going to pick up the phone and drop those charges for me right now. It's that simple Mr. Bank officer. They're going to fire back at you that these are corporate rules and regulations. Yeah, they can be changed because I got a lot of currency. Do you want my business or not?
ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING OFFICE: IRAQI AUTHORITIES FACE DIFFICULTY TRACKING DIGITAL TRANSACTIONS
The Deputy Director General of the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Office in Iraq, Hussein Al-Maqram, announced that the Iraqi authorities are facing difficulty in tracking digital transactions.
Al-Maqram said that the office is still working on updating the legal and legislative framework to meet emerging challenges.
He added, “Iraq is a critical area and is vulnerable to the growth of money laundering operations due to its heavy reliance on cash transactions in commercial transactions and slow progress in electronic payment operations, not to mention that the sales of the Central Bank of Iraq remain close to $300 million per day, which is a large number compared to the volume of goods entering Iraq.”
Al-Maqram said, “In light of these challenges, the relevant authorities in the Republic of Iraq are following several strategies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing using virtual currencies, including continuous cooperation and coordination with banking and non-banking financial institutions and reporting transactions of unknown origin, as well as preparing joint committees from relevant government agencies for the purpose of tracking down those dealing and speculating in them.”
(Am I missing something here. Isn’t the foreign correspondent banks providing the dollars for payment for imports.
They told us that dinars are sent to these banks in other countries, they then convert to dollars and make the payments directly.
No more currency auctions in the CBI.
So, why in this article are they telling us about sales of the Central Bank of Iraq remain close to $300 million per day?
These dollars no longer come out of the reserves.
Also, this article tells us there is still a heavy reliance on “cash transactions”.
What about all this electronic transfer stuff we have been reading about?
Are they just bullshitting us?
Why is there still so much cash being used for foreign business?
But this goes hand in hand with the three zero notes as I told you there will still be a need to have these larger notes for foreign trade even after the Project to Delete the Zeros is completed.
We also have to think about all the countries that have the three zeros notes now in their country’s foreign reserves.
So these older three zero notes are not going away. Ours will be valuable! )