GULF TIMES
Osama Youssef Qaradawi, deputy permanent representative of Qatar to the Arab League, attends an Arab economy, finance and trade ministers meeting in Baghdad yesterday
Agencies/Baghdad
Iraq asked countries at an Arab League summit yesterday to forgive its pre-invasion debts, urging others to follow the United Arab Emirates and Algeria which have already agreed to write off what they were owed by their fellow Opec member.
“We’ve asked Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Libya, Jordan, Sudan, Egypt and Morocco to help Iraq in closing up its debt situation,” Iraqi Finance Minister Rafie al-Esawi said on the first day of the summit, the first to take place in post-war Baghdad.
The Paris Club of 19 rich creditor nations agreed in 2004 to write off 80% of some $40bn debt to help Iraq recover from the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted president Saddam Hussain but triggered years of violence and insecurity.
Debt forgiveness talks with non-Paris Club nations are still under way.
“It needs more co-operation from Arab countries regarding the cancelling of debt,” Esawi said, thanking the UAE and Algeria for agreeing to cancel 100% of debts.
Finance minister talks opened the three-day Arab League Summit in Baghdad, the first to be held in the Iraqi capital in two decades and the first to be hosted by a Shia Arab leader, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Tight security has locked down the capital and the government declared a five-day holiday to help ease congestion caused by checkpoints and roadblocks, with tens of thousands of extra troops drafted in.
Leaders from the 22-member group are due to meet tomorrow in talks likely to be dominated by the crisis in Syria.
Iraq’s external debt was between $130bn and $140bn in 2003, much of which was settled through the 2004 Paris Club agreement.
That deal required Iraq to seek similar settlements with all its other creditors. But some commercial creditors won legal judgements and have refused to comply with the settlement.
Saudi Arabia last year was owed $30bn by Iraq and Kuwait is owed around $22bn in addition to war reparations for the 1991 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Iraq’s security and its oil-driven economy have improved since the bloodier days of 2006-2007 after the 2003 invasion sparked years of sectarian conflict that drove the country close to civil war.
But Iraqis still struggle with daily power shortages, unemployment and a crumbling infrastructure, despite huge oil revenues from exports of 3mn barrels a day.
Iraq hopes the summit will mark its return to the diplomatic stage in the Arab region.
Maliki has sought a detente with Arab Gulf neighbours in an attempt to allay fears his government has moved too close to Iran.
Saudi Arabia recently named its first envoy to Baghdad in two decades and Kuwait earlier this month reached a $500mn agreement with Iraq to resolve a standoff over Gulf-war era debts.
Despite Iraqi claims of widespread high-level representation, only six countries aside from the host dispatched ministers to take part in yesterday’s talks.
The ministers discussed ramping up tourism to revitalise the region’s protest-hit economies, tackling water security and organising regional responses to natural disasters.
More than 100,000 members of Iraq’s forces are providing security in the capital, and Iraq has spent upwards of $500mn to refurbish major hotels, summit venues and infrastructure.
Despite the dramatically tighter measures, a suicide bomber at a police checkpoint in west Baghdad killed one policeman and wounded two others, officials said. A week ago, Al Qaeda attacks nationwide killed 50 people, including three who died in a car bombing opposite the foreign ministry.
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