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Big business on the scent of Iraqi
deals
By Emad Mekay
DAVOS,
Switzerland - The US-backed Iraqi opposition leaders
have vowed to turn the country into a secular,
multi-party, federal and non-sectarian state that will
welcome huge investment in massive oil fields.
Speaking to a group of business leaders and
governments officials at the close of the six-day annual
meeting of the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, they
said that they have largely managed to iron out their
differences and signed several agreements that set a
roadmap of their working together.
The nine
opposition members, many of them virtually unknown and
inactive before the US said that it may take Saddam
Hussein by force, have been long the subject of doubt
over their ability to rule after Saddam Hussein is
forced out of office.
Some European allies and
experts on Iraq have raised questions over what kind of
system the opposition might bring to the country - given
Iraq's historic diversity of ethnicities and frequent
disagreements, often violent, between the opposition
factions themselves.
But Ghassan Atiyyah,
editor-in-chief of Iraqi File, said that the opposition
in exile had agreed to form a government that would rule
for a transitional period of "a year or two" before
general elections could be held.
Iraq, with the
world's second largest proven oil reserves, contains a
blend of ethnicities, religions and nationalities. The
speakers said that they represented a cross-section of
the Iraqi people, including leading Sunni, Shi'ite,
Kurdish and Turkmen regional and political groupings.
"Sectarian differences have been greatly
exaggerated," said Adnan Pachachi, former foreign
minister of Iraq. "What actually divides Iraqis are
sheer political persuasions, which are found in all
other countries. There are liberal Iraqis, socialists,
nationalists and others."
The leaders said that
their record in the northern part of Iraq, known as the
northern no-fly zone, which is patrolled daily by US and
British aircraft, show that they can rule Iraq and give
consideration to human rights, women's rights and
education.
"We have three universities now, up
from one a few years ago," said Barham Salih of the
autonomous Sulaymania Kurdistan Regional Government. "We
have four women judges, and remember this is the Islamic
Middle East."
Another Kurdish leader said that
the groups were trying to build their credibility in the
world and "let the voice of the Iraqi people heard". "We
are trying to organize ourselves to be a credible
opposition so that we can run our country and not
foreigners," he said. "We have tremendous human
resources, a very well-educated population that could do
the job."
Playing to a mostly Western audience,
suspicious of the Middle East and its values, Salih said
that opposition leaders were ready to commit to a
democratic and a free Iraq - on Western lines. "We'll be
committing to a democratic and Iraq and follow all the
values that we'll cherish so much," he said.
The
event, which was not part of the World Economic Forum's
original schedule, appeared, however, to be part of the
ongoing US public relations campaign that sought to make
use of the high-profile and the well attended annual
gathering to sway reluctant world opinions towards a war
with Iraq.
The nine leaders were given the
high-profile farewell dinner party with members of the
press on Monday night. The leaders said they were due to
meet with some corporate executives, who may include
representatives from oil companies.
"If the
chance arises to meet oil companies, we will," said Ayad
Allawi who heads the London-based Iraqi National Accord.
"But we'll not be talking about anything specific and
certainly no contracts." But the leaders said that oil
was and, will still be, an integral part of the work of
any government in Iraq. "Everything in Iraq depends on
oil today, " said Adil Abdul Mahdi, president of the
Shi'ite Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in
Iraq. "No oil, no life."
Mahdi told the audience
that his country, with the worlds' second largest oil
reserves at 112 billion barrels and with much larger
potential to be explored, would need an investment of
US$2-3 billion to bring back Iraq's pre-Gulf War
production level of 3.5 million bpd. Iraq also has the
potential to increase production to around 5-6 million
bpd by 2010 with investment of around $30-42 billion.
"All opposition groups said that they were going
to re-study all [oil] contracts signed during the last
10 years and to see their validity and whether they
represent the interests of the Iraqi people or not,"
Mahdi told IPS. Mahdi, however, said he could not
confirm whether Iraqi opposition leaders would give
preference to American and British companies to develop
the country's oil fields, a view widely held by oil
experts.
"If this corresponds with the Iraqi
interests, then yes," he said. "But you have to remember
that American companies often take 20 percent of oil
profits when other companies take only 8 to 10 percent."
The Iraqi opposition meeting with corporate
executives brought to an end the conference which was
attended by 2,311 people - including 24 heads of state,
82 cabinet ministers, 67 heads of international
organizations, 13 labor leaders, 74 heads of
non-governmental organizations, 177 academics, 1,300
business leaders and 282 media leaders, who attended
nearly 300 sessions.
(Inter Press Service)
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