Archive for the ‘Iraq’ Category

Qatari delegation participates in Arab Forum for Talents and Innovations in Iraq – The Peninsula

Minister of Youth and Sports of Iraq, H E Adnan Dargal, with participants from Qatar during the honouring ceremony.

Doha: The Ministry of Sports and Youth, represented by Qatar Scientific Club, participated in the Arab Forum for Talents and Innovations held in Iraq from January 27 to February 1, 2022 as part of the events in Baghdad, the capital of Arab youth.

The event was held in coordination with the Technical Secretariat of the Council of Arab Youth and Sports Ministers, where the Qatari delegation was represented by Fatima Al Muhannadi as head of the delegation.

Both the member of the scientific club inventor Mohamed Ahmed Al Qasabi and member of the club inventor Sara Amir Al Baker participated. Al Qasabi participated by inventing the system of analysis of the performance of infiltration O Pass, a system that helps referees in football to detect violations of infiltration accurately using UWB marks on the ball and players to track their positions accurately during the game and in the event of any infiltration case is directly sent automatic notice to the referees hour.

The system also analyses the performance of players during the game and sends alerts to coaches about the possibility of any injury to any player, in addition to analysing the data of players to prevent injuries, and his innovation received many awards and centres including receiving third place as the best Arab inventor in the program Stars of Science in its thirteenth edition, as well as received first place in the category of startups within the idea award organized by QDB 2020.

He won the gold medal at the 11th International Inventions Exhibition in the Middle East in 2019, as well as fifth place in the 2021 Individual Innovation Competition at the Challenge and Innovation Forum.

Sarah Al Baker shared her creation of a child protection device from choking inside the car through a thermal sensor that monitors any movement inside the car after the engine is turned off so that it sends an alert at the same time, the driver avoids suffocation automatically by opening windows and giving an audio alarm.

Her innovation won the bronze medal at the 10th International Invention Fair in the Middle East, Sarah Al Baker is a student at Qatar University who specialises in architecture, holds the Gold Award in the preparatory stage of scientific excellence and the Platinum Award for High School, and also won first place in the National Scientific Research Competition in Qatar, and represented Qatar at the Intel International Science and Engineering Exhibition in the United States of American.

During the forum, Fatima Al Muhannadi delivered a speech in which she expressed Qatars thanks to the Iraqi Ministry of Youth and Sports and to the organising committees of the Arab Forum for Talent and Innovations for the hospitality in reception and good organisation and for having a real and sincere will seeking to make our Arab environments attractive and creating useful talents.

Fatima said: This important forum reflects the extent of interest in young Arab talents and how to create talent and build and develop to be an active and useful element in society, It meets the needs of our Arab societies to such meetings, which contribute to creating a fertile environment to support and root talent to be the source of the supply of active Arab cards and capabilities to countries.

She said: Our participation in this forum comes through a delegation that includes a model that we are proud of the young Qatari talents that have emerged in the field of innovation and excellence, and found the attention and care required thanks to a system based on nurturing talent and investing the best investment to be a living example of how keen we are to take care of talent from being a seed to become a good tree that enjoys its shadow. It reaps the benefits of society as a whole.

Qatari delegation participating in the forum was honoured with a shield and a certificate of participation in the forum in a ceremony attended by Minister of Youth and Sports of Iraq, H E Adnan Dargal; Director General of coordination and follow-up department at the Iraqi Ministry of Youth and Sports, Dr. Akram Naeem Atwan and Director General of Scientific Care at the Ministry, Dr. Ahmed Saad Aliwi.

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Qatari delegation participates in Arab Forum for Talents and Innovations in Iraq - The Peninsula

Arabic oud icon seeks to ‘change soul’ of Iraq with music – FRANCE 24

Issued on: 19/01/2022 - 05:02Modified: 19/01/2022 - 05:00

Baghdad (AFP) Long uprooted from his native Iraq, Naseer Shamma, an icon of the Arabic oud, has returned home to help rekindle the flame of Iraqi music, snuffed out by decades of conflict.

"When you are in your own country, you feel very high emotions with the audience," the master string player said in an interview with AFP.

At nearly 60, the virtuoso who studied under late Iraqi oud legend Munir Bashir still appears in awe of his instrument, as well as those that accompany it.

"All those instruments are Iraqi -- you have the santur for example. Each one is from 2000 BC," he said at the national theatre orchestra packed with Iraqi instruments.

"They are very historic instruments and the sound is a very special sound."

Speaking between rehearsals, he added: "There is nostalgia here, with friends. I studied in Baghdad for six years and I always feel more comfortable when I play here."

But such nights in Baghdad have become more of an exception than the rule for Shamma, a native of Kut, in the country's southeast.

Exiled in 1993 under dictator Saddam Hussein, he only returned to Iraq for the first time in 2012.

In the interim, he spent time in Cairo, as well as launching schools of Arabic oud across the Middle East, before settling in Berlin, where he lives now.

Aside from his musical mission, his latest Baghdad performances come with another purpose.

"Now we're playing to help education. My new project is called 'education first'. We need to help Iraqi schools," Shamma said.

As UNICEF has pointed out, "decades of conflict and under-investment in Iraq have destroyed what used to be the best education system in the region and severely curtailed Iraqi children's access to quality learning".

From the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s to the subsequent international embargoes, the 2003 US-led invasion and the later Islamic State group takeover, Iraq has struggled to emerge from bloody turmoil.

"And of course, three or four generations paid the price of this," Shamma said.

Despite the sluggish pace of Iraq's recovery and the political disputes that always threaten to erupt into new violence, the musician is hopeful for change.

"We hope that music... will change the soul of people," he said.

While Iraq is still far from its cultural heyday of the 1970s and 80s, it has recently seen a fledgling renaissance, with art galleries opening and book fairs and festivals being held.

"We need to close the bad past and start again a new life with a new memory and a new vision for the future," Shamma said.

2022 AFP

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Arabic oud icon seeks to 'change soul' of Iraq with music - FRANCE 24

The New Iraq, Signs Of Hope Amid The Rubble And Reconstruction – Worldcrunch

BAGHDAD With a vast office located at the top of a tower fiercely guarded by the army and a bell to call the staff, Khalid Hamza Abbas is obviously a powerful character, decked out in an impeccable suit. Abbas runs the Basra Oil Company (BOC), the national company responsible for the exploitation of the oil fields in the province of Basra, in the very south of Iraq, from which four million barrels of crude oil flow daily. Its the equivalent of 4% of world demand and 65% of central government revenue concentrated in a region of only four million inhabitants.

As he explains the profit-sharing scheme between the worlds major oil companies and his public enterprise, the 50-year-old with thin glasses is suddenly stopped dead in his tracks by the ringing of his telephone. He tries a joke to mask his suddenly worried face: "I'm going to ask you to leave my office for a few moments. If I haven't called you back in 10 minutes, call the police."

Clearly unannounced, Faleh al-Khazali, a member of a powerful Shia militia, bursts into the room with a toothy grin. One of his three bodyguards closes the door. What could the frail businessman and the newly elected member of parliament, who lost his eye in the fighting in Syria, have to say to each other?

Al-Khazali is far from his Baghdad constituency. He alone illustrates the headwinds blowing across the Iraqi economy as the U.S. Army packs up and lets the country stand on its own two feet. Torn between corruption, sectarianism and the curse of black gold, the land of ancient Mesopotamia will have to defy the laws of gravity to regain its lost prosperity.

In many ways, however, the skies are clearing over Iraq. The recent victory against the Islamic State organization may have ended nearly four decades of wars and embargoes. The COVID-19 pandemic, after ravaging the economy and forcing the first devaluation since the American invasion of 2003, is loosening its grip and allowing world oil demand to resume its upward trend. According to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, this increase should continue until the end of the 2030s. Iraq, the world's fifth largest crude producer, is counting on the windfall to rebuild, announcing recently that it would increase production by 40% by 2027.

A visit to the Zubair oil deposit, one of the country's largest in the middle of the desert, does not, however, leave the impression of an industrial site ready to conquer the world market. Old and decrepit, the operation shows several signs of leaks and spits thick black smoke into the sky.

"The construction of the gas compressor, which is supposed to reduce gas emissions, is very late," confides a local employee in the middle of half-ruined shacks. Management is clearly not keeping up with government ambitions. Jointly operated by the BOC and a European company, the enterprise should nevertheless increase its production by 50% in the next five years. Its a logistical challenge that many consider to be unrealistic.

Adel Wakir, an engineer from Basra and an expert on oil issues, says, Such an increase in national production has no chance of succeeding because Iraq is unable to make the necessary investments. You have to explore, drill, build new pipelines, terminals, reservoirs ... but the public deficit is so large that capital expenditure is systematically sacrificed."

Like the country as a whole, the Iraqi state is divided between Kurdish, Sunni and Shia factions, each of which holds one end of the chains of command, making the whole thing ungovernable. The Shia are in the majority among the population and now monopolize power after being excluded under Saddam Hussein's dictatorship from 1979 to 2003. The Shia have made the ocean of hydrocarbons in southern Iraq the rear base for their conquest of the country.

The oil industry, which represents nearly 60% of the national GDP, is thus under the control of more or less coordinated paramilitary organizations, often linked to Iran. Theyre present at all stages of the value chain: trucks, terminals, cargo ships. Their reach even goes as far as the clandestine refueling of oil tankers anchored in the Persian Gulf.

"We do not control our borders," says Finance Minister Ali Allawi, who says he has launched a customs reform in recent months.

Its a problem with seemingly no solution, given the size of the challenge. Even Baghdad's international airport, Iraq's gateway to the world, is said to be in the hands of militias. A businessman who regularly charters cosmetic products says he has to pay his customs taxes twice. "To export or import the slightest trifle, you have to grease the palms of the militias," he says on the condition of anonymity.

Endemic corruption deprives the population of revenues and international companies have to deal with it as best they can.

If Iraq wants to succeed in the coming decades, it will have to attract and keep the major oil companies because they are the ones with the technical know-how," says Adel Wakir. Wakir says some of them are arriving with the baggage of large-scale diplomatic agreements, such as TotalEnergies and its recent $27 billion contract: "Without a strong will from the French government, I am not sure that TotalEnergies would have invested such amounts in such an unpredictable country."

And he points the finger at several competing players that have recently left Iraq, citing profitability problems and a shift toward renewable energy.

Guard at an oil rig in Iraq

Pikist

If corruption does not get the better of the Iraqi oil industry, the climate issue could soon finish the job. The huge black streaks in the skies around Basra are a reminder day and night that as the era of fossil fuels comes to an end, Iraq is on the wrong side of history.

The global energy mix will soon work against us, and that is precisely why we are increasing production," says Finance Minister Ali Allawi. We need resources to diversify the economy before it is too late.

Can Iraq wean itself off hydrocarbons? Nothing is less certain, as its economy is suffering from dysmorphia. Competing with a huge civil service with extravagant privileges, burdened by the absence of the rule of law and hampered by a long overvalued currency and a starving banking system, the Iraqi private sector seems far from being able to take over.

From Basra to Baghdad, passing through the plains of the Tigris and Euphrates, one reality is clear to the visitor: Outside of oil and the civil service, there is no salvation for the Iraqi citizen. Umalawi, who is 80 years old, knows something about this. Standing at the entrance of her home, made up of bits of sheet metal, the matriarch has just returned from a day's work in the middle of the rubbish dump under one of the highways surrounding Baghdad and its 10 million inhabitants.

Half of my grandchildren don't go to school and start working as ragpickers at a very young age," she laments in a setting worthy of the world's worst slums. We live like animals and the situation is getting worse.

Once one of the most advanced countries in the Arab world, Iraq is now said to have nearly a third of its population in poverty, second only to Yemen and Syria in the human development index.

Undermined by poverty and methodically divided by Saddam Hussein, Iraqi society has gradually found refuge in a segregated communitarianism that reached its peak during the civil war of 2006-08. Nearly 70,000 citizens were killed, while Sunnis and Shia split into separate neighborhoods. Although the resentments have since largely subsided, many still retain certain identity-based instincts that have been skillfully fed by a political class that has turned religious antagonisms into electoral gains.

Not far from the runways of Baghdad airport, Ayad al-Jobouri, a tribal leader and former member of parliament, reigns supreme over a predominantly Sunni rural constituency. Living in a lavish residence and surrounded by dozens of henchmen, the political leader is also a distributor of agricultural equipment.

"The inhabitants of the surrounding area can borrow a tractor from me whenever they want," he declares in the midst of 50 machines as gleaming as they are impeccably aligned in his shed.

Is this a way to buy the loyalty of his flock? The man sidesteps the issue and prefers to accuse the Shia of destabilizing the Sunni strongholds with the government's checkbook: The Shia control the state and capture its resources to buy the votes of Sunni areas," he says. They are now the masters of the country, but they are divided and are beginning to tear each other apart between opposing factions."

This theory was confirmed on the same day by a crowd at the entrance to the Green Zone in Baghdad, the seat of the Iraqi government. Camped in a tense atmosphere, a few thousand young Shia militiamen coming from the four corners of Iraq are shouting about electoral fraud and demanding a recount of the votes from the October 10 legislative elections. The results were disastrous for pro-Iranian groups but favorable to Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shia nationalist leader who is expected to form a new government.

The elections were stolen!" says Ali Mohamed, 27, who arrived from Basra during the night. The Sadrists also committed fraud, they must leave. We are ready to fight if necessary.

After starting peacefully, the demonstration changed a few days later: In addition to scuffles with the security forces that left one dead and dozens wounded, three rockets were fired not far from the Green Zone. Further, two drone bombs attempted to eliminate Mustafa al-Khadimi, the outgoing Prime Minister.

If a new war breaks out in Iraq, it will be internal to the Shia camp," says Mustafa Nasser, a journalist in charge of the Press Freedom Advocacy Association, an NGO defending the freedom of the Iraqi press. While the militias may hold all the levers of power, they cannot prevent a fundamental phenomenon: More and more Iraqis aspire to look beyond the communitarianism narrative that's been hammered into them."

In the southern suburbs of Baghdad, the sprawling "Dream City" neighborhood deserves its name for several reasons: running water, continuous electricity, city gas, garbage collection, quality schools, supermarkets, and playgrounds.

Partly financed by the Americans and built by a Korean consortium at the beginning of the 2010s, this new city of several hundred blocks of flats has enabled tens of thousands of lower middle class Iraqis to achieve a standard of living that was previously out of reach. One is Ahmed Karim, who moved in with his family as soon as the neighborhood opened in 2015: "This is the best place to live in Baghdad. The place is known throughout the country because it offers a glimpse of what positive things Iraq can achieve."

A few buildings away, Mohamed and Ibtissam, 55, explain that they jumped at the chance to escape the Sadr City suburb where they had always resided: "In our old neighborhood, there are only Shia and every mosque is held by a militia. It's a horror. Here, Sunnis and Shia live together in harmony. In fact, there is not even a mosque!

Can Iraq free itself from separatism and focus its energies on its development?

"It is within reach," says journalist Mustafa Nasser. Look at the example of the revolution in 2019, during which hundreds of thousands of people of all faiths had demonstrated against governmental negligence and the militia grip.

"Although the movement was harshly repressed, it showed that extremism is in its last hours," Nasser adds.

While waiting for a new world to emerge, some parts of Baghdad are in full swing. The opera house is sold out every night. For the first time in 20 years, a music festival has been held in the mythical ruins of Babylon, an hour away. The shopping malls that are springing up all over the city are home to the world's biggest brands and are teeming with people as soon as night falls. With Saddam gone and ISIS defeated, the fragile peace seems to be putting wind in the sails of a middle class eager to invent a future for itself.

Nowhere is this frenzy of life more visible than in Al-Anbar province, an hour's drive north of Baghdad. Under the yoke of the Islamic State organization between 2014 and 2016, the region was emptied of its population and martyred by the violence of the reconquest battles led by the Iraqi army, but it is now the site of a spectacular reconstruction. The two million or so inhabitants have returned and a feeling of optimism is abundant throughout the region.

We have turned the situation around," says Mahdi al-Nohman, head of the province's investment commission, from his state-of-the-art office. Al-Nohman says that in less than three years, he has granted nearly 300 business licenses for a total of $5 billion and created 11,000 jobs.

Wherever you look in the main cities of Anbar, Fallujah and Ramadi, large construction sites bristle with cranes: here a 30,000-seat stadium, there a gigantic shopping mall where Carrefour could soon occupy an entire level, further on a residential area with hundreds of single-family houses, a five-star hotel ...

While many of these contracts were awarded under murky conditions to contractors with opaque finances, the results are nonetheless impressive to onlookers strolling through Ramadi's bazaar.

Ahmed, the owner of a clothing store on the crowded main street, says, "We still lack schools and hospitals, but the roads are now excellent and electricity is more plentiful than before ISIS.

"My son was unemployed before the war and now has a good job in construction," says Khalida Ali, 55, who came to buy fabric to furnish her newly renovated house. A member of the local UN mission confirms this success on condition of anonymity: "The fact that this region is entirely Sunni is not unrelated to its success. Here, there is no trace of militias, the population is homogeneous. But I believe above all that the war has provoked an electroshock among the population. They no longer want violence and are now looking to the future.

Significantly, its a future that will now be written without America. The Biden administration has formally announced the end of the Pentagon's participation in combat operations against ISIS, which has been reduced to a few sleeper cells holed up in the desert between Iraq and Syria. Uncle Sam will nevertheless maintain a presence of about 2,000 soldiers on Iraqi soil, mainly for training purposes.

As he hands over the keys to his ministry, Ali Allawi says, This presence may seem anecdotal, but it constitutes a sort of security umbrella for Iraq. The proof is that Kurds, Sunnis and a good part of the Shia are happy with this presence. With this assurance, Iraq must now focus on regional integration. This is the key to its future."

As the Middle East goes through a phase of relative respite, a chorus of politicians from all sides is calling for the post-war Europe model to be used to tie regional economies together through transportation, trade or the energy sector. For Iraq, the practical work could begin with the management of its major rivers, which have their sources in Turkey and Iran and whose flows are decreasing at the rate of the construction of dams upstream. Far downstream, Basra, suffocating under a severe water crisis and abominable pollution, could be the first test of Iraq's ability to make its way into the 21st century. From there, there will be no shortage of challenges.

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As Shiite rivals jostle in Iraq, Sunni and Kurdish parties targeted – FRANCE 24

Issued on: 18/01/2022 - 03:36Modified: 18/01/2022 - 03:34

Baghdad (AFP) As Iraq's Shiite leaders jostle to secure a majority in the newly-elected parliament, Sunni and Kurdish minorities have been caught up in a spate of warning grenade attacks, analysts say.

In recent days, unknown attackers have hurled grenades at Kurdish and Sunni targets including political party offices and a lawmaker's home -- groups that could help Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr win the critical parliamentary majority needed to make his choice of prime minister.

"It is a way of punishing the forces that have allied with Moqtada Sadr to form a parliamentary majority," said political scientist Ihsan al-Shammari.

"Their message is political," he added, calling the attacks "part of the mode of political pressure" adopted by some groups.

In multi-confessional and multi-ethnic Iraq, the formation of governments has involved complex negotiations since the 2003 US-led invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

No single party holds an outright majority, so the next leader will be voted in by whichever coalition can negotiate allies to become the biggest bloc -- which then elects Iraq's president, who then appoints a prime minister.

In previous parliaments, parties from Iraq's Shiite majority have struck compromise deals to work together and form a government, with an unofficial system whereby the prime minister is Shiite, the president is a Kurd and the speaker of parliament is Sunni.

But Sadr, who once led an anti-US militia and who opposes all foreign interference, has repeatedly said the next prime minister will be chosen by his movement.

So rather than strike an alliance with the powerful Shiite Coordination Framework -- which includes the pro-Iran Fatah alliance, the political arm of the former paramilitary Hashed al-Shaabi -- Sadr has forged a new coalition.

That includes two Sunni parties, Taqadum and Azm, as well as the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

It has infuriated the Coordination Framework -- who insist their grouping is bigger.

In recent days, grenades have been lobbed at the home of a Taqadum lawmaker, as well as at the party offices of Azm, Taqadum and the KDP in Baghdad.

On Sunday, flashbang stun grenades were hurled into the branches of two Kurdish banks in the capital Baghdad -- wounding two people.

The heads of both banks are said to be close to political leaders in Iraq's autonomous northern Kurdistan region.

There has already been unrest following the election, with Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi escaping unhurt when an explosive-packed drone hit his residence in November during what his office called an "assassination attempt."

No group has claimed the attack.

While the culprits of the recent grenade blasts have also not been identified, a security source charged that the attacks "convey the messages of the parties that lost in the elections".

The purpose, the security source claimed, is to "disrupt the formation of the government" --- implicitly pointing to the Coordination Framework, and in particular the Fatah alliance.

Fatah lost much of its political capital in the October 10 polls, having secured only 17 seats, compared to the 48 it had before.

It alleged the vote was rigged, but Iraq's top court rejected a complaint of electoral irregularities filed by Hashed.

Hashed, which maintains an arsenal of weapons, fighters and supporters, has sought a variety of ways to make itself heard outside parliament, including demonstrations and sit-ins.

"Rather than accepting defeat at the polls, they threaten violence," said Lahib Higel, of the International Crisis Group.

Sadr has considered striking deals with certain members of the Coordination Framework, such as Fatah chief Hadi al-Ameri, at the expense of other figures in the bloc, such as former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, Higel said.

But such an arrangement "is not Iran's preference" Higel argued, adding that Tehran "would rather see a consensus that includes all Shiite parties".

However, she said Iran could settle for a deal where Shiite parties held sway.

"It is possible that they (Iran) would accept a scenario where not everyone is represented in the next government, as long as there is a sufficient amount of Shiite parties, including some Hashed factions," she said.

2022 AFP

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As Shiite rivals jostle in Iraq, Sunni and Kurdish parties targeted - FRANCE 24

Vietnam, Iraq vet Randall Alvis honored posthumously by Harshbarger – Therogersvillereview

Randall Alvis was honored posthumously for his service in Vietnam Thursday during a ceremony in the Hawkins County Courthouse initiated by Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger.

In October Harshbarger hosted ceremonies throughout her district, including one in Rogersville, honoring Vietnam veterans and their families for their sacrifice and distinguished service.

Not all veterans or their families were able to attend the Rogersville event, but Harshbarger is still trying to make sure everyone is honored for their service.

On Thursday Randall Alviss daughter, Beth Ann Alvis, and two brothers Danny and Dennis attended a ceremony at the Hawkins County Courthouse.

Harsherbargers field representative Cody Woods presided over the ceremony which was also attended by Hawkins County Veterans Services Officer Col. Mike Manning.

Randall Alvis went to Vietnam when he was 18 years old, and was also a member of the Tennessee National Guards 278th in Allandale which was deployed to Iraq in 2004-05.

When Alvis passed away suddenly in 2008 at the age of 59 he was still a member of the TN National Guard, having achieved the rank of E7 (Sergeant First Class).

As part of Harshbargers recognition program, Vietnam veterans or their families received a lapel pin and congressional commendation certificate in recognition of their service.

Congresswoman Harshbarger wished she could be here today, as well as our district director Daryl Brady, Woods told Beth Ann Alvis. In honor of Mr. Alviss service in Vietnam and to our country we want to present this to you and make sure that you put that somewhere special.

Woods added This program was started as more of a recognition of service that Congresswoman Harshbarger wanted to make into more of a welcome home. I know they didnt get that when they originally came home and they werent thanked for their service. But, that is one thing wed like to do. Just a proper welcome home.

Manning noted that Sgt. Randall Alvis is in elite company.

People dont realize this but less than 1 percent of this countrys population ever served in the military, Manning said. So you can take to heart what your dad did and his sacrifices for his country.

Manning added, There are approximately 4,300 veterans in this county, which is about 10 percent of the population. Thats huge when you consider less than 1 percent (nationally) ever served in the military. That speaks volumes about this county. We are very thankful.

Hawkins County Courthouse

Rogersville, TN

Jan. 13, 2022

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Vietnam, Iraq vet Randall Alvis honored posthumously by Harshbarger - Therogersvillereview