Compromise on Oil Law in Iraq Seems to Be Collapsing

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Times

A carefully constructed compromise on a draft law governing Iraq’s rich oil fields, agreed to in February after months of arduous talks among Iraqi political groups, appears to have collapsed. The apparent breakdown comes just as Congress and the White House are struggling to find evidence that there is progress toward reconciliation and a functioning government here.

Senior Iraqi negotiators met in Baghdad on Wednesday in an attempt to salvage the original compromise, two participants said. But the meeting came against the backdrop of a public series of increasingly strident disagreements over the draft law that had broken out in recent days between Hussain al-Shahristani, the Iraqi oil minister, and officials of the provincial government in the Kurdish north, where some of the nation’s largest fields are located.

Mr. Shahristani, a senior member of the Arab Shiite coalition that controls the federal government, negotiated the compromise with leaders of the Kurdish and Arab Sunni parties. But since then the Kurds have pressed forward with a regional version of the law that Mr. Shahristani says is illegal. Many of the Sunnis who supported the original deal have also pulled out in recent months.

The oil law is one of several crucial pieces of legislation and wider political agreement that the Bush administration has been pressing for to show progress toward creating a functioning government.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/world/middleeast/13baghdad.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[liberal N proud]

1. The oil law was the progress bu$h was seeing

Not the progress they were selling but we all know they were after the oil and if any agreement to allow them to get their greedy hands on the oil fails, then bu$h truly has lost his progress.

[mediaman007]

2. Some group is going to be mighty disappointed if Bush* screws up access

to Iraq's oil!

[Spazito]

3. Hmmm, those who believe Iraq's oil belongs to the Iraqis(I do) might

see this as real progress, Iraqis are standing up and protecting their resources from the thieves who are trying to steal it.

[Drum]

4. I sure do!

Drum sez: Hey Iraq! You should control your own oil, and not fold to the warmongers!

[lovuian]

5. He Failed They Failed and thats the Karma

They failed because they have gotten caught

and they have destroyed the Republican Party

and the Military complex is falling apart as we speak

and now we are in Debt

its going to be a time when the NWO looks on and sees it failed

so close and yet so far

[donkeyotay]

6. The Kurds signed a deal with Hunt Oil of Texas

Which the Sunnis say is illegal because they want to retain control of their nation's assets. Interesting how we can make companies not do business with, oh say, Iran, but here's a company making a deal with the Kurds against our nation's alleged interest in getting the Iraq government into working order. I guess the important thing is that the money winds up in Texas, in GOP hands.