Posted on 04/10/2003 11:15:37 AM PDT by NorthernRight
How very interesting. It was all about oil with the frenchies.
Jean Chrétien is just a french rubber stamp, meekie!
Don't worry, we will. Currently, polls indicate approximately a 70% support for the US/UK war effort, (even while only 55%+/- would have wanted a Canadian participation). We on the right, and especially those of us in the Canadian Alliance are working our butts off to change things around.
Already, we have had about a half-dozen pro-US rallies in various cities, with many more scheduled. These rallies are wildly successfull in Canadian terms. The Chrétien Liberals are in ideological disarray, and their scandals, sleaze and outright malfeasance is becoming obvious to even the most obtuse observers here. The only problem is... Québec, which remains staunchly liberal in it's politics.
Things have to change up here, or it's civil war. The west is fed up, as are all conservatives in Canada, and we can't accept the status quo. The right in Canada is becoming radicalized. This country is facing a shake-up.
Red
Get Ottawa and Montreal out of Western Canada!
Bookmarked.
Okay, "hug"..... ;^)
War claims and debt may stall Iraq's oil schemes
William Maclean LONDON
Foreign oil companies chasing projects in a post-sanctions Iraq can expect to find their negotiations affected by uncertainties over Gulf War reparations and Baghdad's enormous foreign debt, analysts said on February 3.
A refusal by the international community to reschedule foreign debt and forgive a large chunk of Gulf War reparations could remove any incentive for Baghdad to open its giant oilfields for foreign participation, one expert said.
"Reparations figures that have been advanced add up to $320 billion," said Kamil Mahdi, a lecturer in Middle East economics at Exeter University's Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies.
"If even a portion of that is approved, Iraq would be in no position to develop its oil reserves. It would not have an incentive, because it would not be a beneficiary of any oil development," he told a conference on the Iraqi economy.
Iraq is required to pay tens of billions of dollars in compensation claims for damage and loss of life caused by its seven month occupation of neighboring Kuwait in 1990-91.
It makes the payments from a 30 percent proportion of UN- monitored export revenues under a UN oil-for-food program that funnels the bulk of the earnings to humanitarian purchases.
Iraq has repeatedly asked the United Nations to stop cutting the 30 percent from its revenues for reparations, complaining that the deal is not enough to meet its humanitarian needs.
The program is an exemption from strict sanctions imposed on Baghdad following Iraq's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Experts say Iraq could find itself paying the reparations for decades to come if all claimants insist on payments totaling $80 billion or more.
Inder Sud, head of the World Bank's Middle East Country Management Unit, said rescheduling of external debt of about $130 billion was one of several steps necessary for the regeneration of the country's dilapidated economy.
"It's difficult to see how Iraq could meet its debt service arrangements," Sud said. "Debt management will have to be rescheduled."
"It is not inconceivable to me that the economy be restored. But the interim period will be tough."
Iraq ran up huge debts during the 1980s and has not repaid any of this because of the UN curbs on its economic activity during the 1990s.
About $50 billion of the $130 billion are arrears on interest, Sud said.
Russian and Chinese oil companies have signed contracts with Iraq to develop giant oilfields when sanctions are lifted. French companies have been earmarked for similar projects but have not signed.
In 1997, LUKOIL and other Russian companies signed a contract to develop Iraq's West Qurna oilfield, but significant investments have been blocked by the sanctions.
TotalFina is expected to develop the 500,000 bpd Bin Umar oilfield, while Elf Aquitaine is touted for the 300,000 bpd Majnoon field, both near the border with Iran.
Russia is Iraq's biggest creditor and is owed $7 billion since before the 1991 Gulf War.
"Iraq is not now a rich country," said Mahdi. "It is not able to meet reparations and it is in need of debt remission."
Analysts at the conference said they expected that Gulf states which lent heavily to Iraq during its 1980-88 war would forgive those loans if President Saddam Hussein lost power.
One put those loans at about $35 billion.
A senior British official attending the conference said some foreign creditors might forgive many of Iraq's debts in the interests of ensuring a peaceful transition away from Hussein's rule. "Maybe there will be a prodigal son effect. One might imagine that there might be," he said.
Reuters
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