Kurd PM: French, Russians to lose Iraq oil ("No Soup for You" Alert)

UPI ^ | 3/14/03 | Martin Walker

[NorCoGOP]

WASHINGTON, March 14 (UPI) -- French and Russian oil and gas contracts signed with the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq "will not be honored," Barhim Salih, a leading Iraqi Kurdish official, said in Washington Friday, just before a series of high-level meetings with Bush administration officials.

"A new Iraqi government should not honor any of these contracts, signed against the interests of the Iraqi people. The new Iraqi government should respect those who stood by us, and not those who stood beside the dictator," added Salih, who is prime minister in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan government that controls Iraq's eastern Kurdish area.

Russian and French oil corporations have each signed draft contracts with Iraq, to come into force only when the United Nations sanctions are lifted, for exploration, development and exploitation of the country's energy resources -- which geologists believe may be the world's second largest after Saudi Arabia. The value of the draft contracts, if fully taken up, is estimated to have a potential of more than $20 billion.

Although there have been dark hints that French and Russian opposition to a second U.N. resolution in the Security Council could have economic consequences, this is the first clear threat from a leading opposition figure from inside Iraq that their oil contracts will not be honored.

"France and Russia should make a decision where they stand," Barhim Salih added, speaking to U.S. policy experts and reporters at the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations Friday. "We would rather see them stand with us. They cannot have it both ways."

Salih is expected to be one of the leading political figures in Iraq, along with the PUK's leader Jalal Talabani, after the fall of Iraq's current leader Saddam Hussein. The Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, protected for a decade by British and U.S. warplanes enforcing a no-fly zone, has become an island of prosperity and nascent democratic ways.

While there is no guarantee that Salih will be elected to a high position in whatever new government emerges in Baghdad after Saddam, the Iraqi Kurds -- both in the PUK area and those in the region controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party and its leader Masud Barzani -- constitute the best-organized opposition in Iraq and are expected to play a decisive role.

Prime Minister Salih went on for talks with senior Bush administration officials on plans for rebuilding post-war Iraq and for creating political stability. His top priority was to dissuade the Bush administration from giving the Turkish military any role in the Kurdish region on northern Iraq.

"Turkish military involvement will invite other neighbors to intervene, like Syria and Iran. This would open Pandora's box. It would create havoc, and compromise the real mission, which is to install representative government and democracy in a stable Iraq, at peace with its neighbors."

He also said that the 70,000 Kurdish troops, mostly with light weapons, at his government's disposal would come under U.S. command in the event of war. And he confirmed intelligence reports that Iraqi troops had affixed explosives to the oil wells near Mosul and Kirkuk.

"Saddam wants to instigate an environmental catastrophe. This is his Armageddon," Salih said. "We are in touch with the Iraqi military, telling them to ignore orders to destroy the wells. We think very few of them will fight. Senior officers at border crossing have asked us to let them know when the moment (for attack) comes so they can escape."

Prime Minister Salih, 42, with a Ph. D in computer science from a British university, said he did "not expect to see Western-style democracy overnight, but some form of representative government will emerge, based on a federal system with wide measures of autonomy for the various regions."

[finnman69]

"No oil for you. NEXT!"

[Maedhros]

Posted.

Already breaking, no less.

[Dog]

Pokey just posted a thread that said Chirac is busy right now reading his press clippings.....so this might come as a shock to him..

[montag813]

This Kurd should shut the hell up. He has no power to be so arrogat, and he doesn't speak for the U.S., plus this will only piss off the Turks.

[RightWhale]

France was worried this might happen. So the French guaranteed it would happen by their showing at the UN. Nice job, francois.

[NorCoGOP]

Dang! I did a search on the entire title...nada...

Sorry.

[daviddennis]

Turkey's lack of support for us has to be pretty good news for these folks. They will probably defeat what they consider to be their own territory, including oil fields that are right at the edge.

I strongly suspect that the Kurdish state within Iraq will include those oil fields, and they will have earned them fair and square. (The Kurdish territories otherwise hold very little oil).

The French and Russian contracts, incidentally, are extremely favourable towards the French and Russians. It would be a blessing for the Iraqi people to have them voided. Expect that to happen, and expect American and British companies to get most of the oil, but at market rates.

D

[Maedhros]

np

[Xthe17th]

Hmmmm. So I guess this team's gonna have trouble getting their motor to run this year:

[Eva]

Do you think that the Kurds are worried about angering the Turks? Also, I think that the Kurds have as much right to say what will happen to their oil as the US does. I don't get your point.

[DannyTN]

"A new Iraqi government should not honor any of these contracts, signed against the interests of the Iraqi people. The new Iraqi government should respect those who stood by us, and not those who stood beside the dictator," added Salih,

You can't say it much plainer than that.

[templar]

Expect that to happen, and expect American and British companies to get most of the oil, but at market rates.

Just gearing up production to the max and selling it on the open market would be fine. The price of oil should be about half of what it is now (maybe 16 - 18/barrel). OTOH, if things go really sour (very seriously sour), expect some really higher prices for a while till it's finished.

[FairOpinion]

The Kurd PM was NOT arrogant in the least. I saw him on FoxNews. He was actually very intelligent and supportive of the US. He said they are part of the coalition supporting the US, and they, as part of the future Iraq government will rememer who their friends are, who were the ones who help liberate the people of Iraq, and who (France, Russia) were the ones who tried to obstruct their liberation. He said, that is why they won't honor contracts with France and Russia in the post-Saddam Iraq.

He also said, that the Kurds are realistic, they won't fight for a Kurdish state, but will have a part of the unified Iraq.

He also didn't say anything bad about the Turks, just that their own concern is Iraq and to establish a Democratic government.

He came across very well, and also as someone who is sincere.

[madison46]

That PM is now my hero...I HATE the frogs...choosing saddam over US had to be the worst of worse moves in history

[hotpotato]

French and Russian oil and gas contracts signed with the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq "will not be honored,"

Price for freedom... or attempts at derailing freedom for others.

[Irene Adler]

Those who are late do not receive fruit cup.

[jdontom]

KEYWORDS: Click to Add Keyword.............

Not your fault, no key word noted.............

[Irene Adler]

What you say about the Kurd PM is correct. I saw it on FOX, too. I agree with your assessment.

[hotpotato]

This Kurd should shut the hell up. He has no power to be so arrogat, and he doesn't speak for the U.S., plus this will only piss off the Turks.

What an odd thing to say.