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It's not 2003 and Iraq all over again | Guest Column | wyomingnews.com - Wyoming Tribune

Like the first sparrow of spring, Iraqs reversal of all promises made to the U.S. in order to secure another waiver to import electricity and gas from still-sanctioned Iran is a regular and much-anticipated feature of the oil year for seasoned market watchers. This year has been no different. Some have interpreted the 120-day waiver, which is the equal longest granted to Iraq in years, as a tangential good-faith gesture to Iran by the U.S. as they attempt to agree on a new iteration of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, nuclear deal). This interpretation is unlikely to be correct, as Washington has not directly correlated the two issues for a considerable time. Rather, it seems that the 120-day waiver was made by the U.S. with the full knowledge that Iraq would break any pledges it made to secure it, and instead reflects a practical realization finally that it has to fight for any influence in the huge oil and gas reservoirs of Iraq against Chinas continued encroachment. Indeed, last week shortly after the award of the 120-day waiver - another huge hydrocarbons deal was awarded in Iraq to Chinese commercial interests. This latest deal an engineering, procurement, and construction contract worth at least US$412 million for a 130 million standard cubic feet per day natural gas processing facility in Basra was given out to a consortium of China CAMC Engineering Co (CAMCE) and CNOOC Petrochemical Engineering Co. (CNOOC Petrochemical Engineering) by the highly misleadingly named Kuwait Energy Basra Limited (KEBL). This company, in fact, is nothing much to do with Kuwait at all but rather is an indirect but wholly-owned subsidiary of Chinas United Energy Group (UEG). According to UEGs 2020 filings (but signed and filed on 27 July 2021 in Hong Kong on behalf of company chairman, Zhang Hong Wei), having acquired BP Pakistans assets (and renamed them United Energy Pakistan Limited), UEG then acquired Kuwait Energy Plc on 21 March 2019, since which time it has engaged in further upstream oil and gas business in Iraq and Egypt, as well as in Pakistan. Consequently, the award for the development of a critical piece of Iraqs hydrocarbons infrastructure in Iraq has been neatly and quietly given by one Chinese company to another Chinese company.

Related: Worlds Largest Oil Trader To Completely Phase Out Russian Crude According to UEGs 2020 Hong Kong filings, its own Kuwait Energy Basra Limited has been the operator of Iraqs Block 9 since 3 February 2013 for a basic term of 30 years, with the early production rate achieved on 31 January 2016. In the meantime, Kuwait Energy Iraq Ltd (KEIL) an operating unit of UEGs Kuwait Energy remains the operator of Iraqs Siba gas field, the contract for which was entered into 5 June 2011. The Siba gas field is the first non-associated gas field in Iraq and, as UEG notes: The indigenous gas production from Siba is considered by Iraq Government as one of the key strategic contributors to Iraqs energy needs and economic development. According to UEG, the Siba gas field development was completed, and the gas processing plant operation commenced in August 2018. This latest US412 million deal follows another even bigger deal between the same players in January of this year, in which a US$594 million engineering, procurement, and construction contract was given to the same consortium CAMCE and CNOOC Petrochemical Engineering by Kuwait Energy Basra Co for a 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude oil processing facility in Iraqs Block 9.

These deals, in turn, had followed swiftly on from the announcement in January that the Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina) signed a US$880 million engineering, procurement, and construction contract with Iraqs Missan International Refinery Company to build the 150,000 bpd Missan Refinery Project. According to local news reports in 2019, the Missan International Refinery Company itself was formed by a little-known Swiss-Chinese consortium comprised of Swiss industrial firm Satarem (15 percent share) and Chinas Wahan (85 percent share). The refinery project originally broke ground in 2016, with an estimated cost of US$6 billion, which, according to Iraqs then-Deputy Minister for Refining, Deiaa Jaafar, would be funded by the Export-Import Bank of China and China Development Bank. At the time, Iraq was looking to move ahead with another three refineries, in addition to Missan, comprising the 300,000 bpd Nassiriya refinery, the 150,000 bpd Kirkuk refinery, and the 140,000 bpd Karbala refinery. According to the comments from Iraqs Oil Ministry in January, this new iteration of the project will now be completed within the next 54 months.

Related: How Egypt Could Become A Critical Energy Hub

All of this Chinese activity occurred in parallel to the finalization again at the beginning of this year - of the 25-year deal for the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) to take a 49 percent share in the huge Mansuriya non-associated field, with the remainder held by Iraqs state-own Midland Oil Company. Extremely close to the Iranian border, and just north of Baghdad, the Mansuriya gas field has an estimated 4.5-4.6 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas in place, with plans to increase production to at least 320 million standard cubic feet (Mmscf) per day, making it a very valuable gas deposit in and of itself. Its broader significance is that Iraq had previously always sought to offer the three fields of Mansuriya, Akkas, and Siba together as one development package.

These three sites form a skewed triangle across southern Iraq, stretching from Mansuriya near the eastern border with Iran, down to Siba in the south (extremely close to the key Iraqi Basra export hub), and then all the way west across to Akkas (extremely close to the border with Syria). When Russia had been eyeing the development of the very same three fields, just before China took the figurative driving seat on the deals with a view presumably on what Russia was about to do in Ukraine, this triangle was to have been linked in with a transit route running all the way from Basra to Syria. Much of this route disappears into Iraqs lawless wasteland Anbar province, a place so violent and unpredictable that it was even avoided where possible by Islamic State. This route, what the U.S. military used to call the spine of the Islamic State, is where the Euphrates flows westwards into Syria and eastwards into the Persian Gulf, and is extremely close to the border with Iran.

It remains of vital strategic importance to Russian operations in Syria, including the Russian military Khmeimim Air Base near Latakia that functions alongside the civilian Bassel Al-Assad International Airport in Syria, while Latakia itself is also home to a key intelligence-gathering listening station operated by Russia. There are also plans by China, as analyzed in-depth in my new book on the global oil markets, to build its own intelligence-gathering listening station in Irans Chabahar, which will function as a core part of Beijings ongoing upgrading and rollout of its own C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) systems in the region. The overall plan, as exclusively highlighted by OilPrice.com at the time, before a more circumspect approach was taken (for the time being at least) in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was for the Chabahar facility to be connected to Russias intelligence-gathering stations around its core military bases in Syria. This, in turn, would allow it to be easily tied into Russias Southern Joint Strategic Command 19th EW Brigade (Rassvet) near Rostov-on-Don, which itself links into the corollary Chinese systems.

Consequently, Iraqs playing both sides in the gas, oil, and refining sectors can be regarded as part of a much broader move by several major Middle Eastern oil and gas players including the once stalwart U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia to position themselves in the center of what is becoming an economically, politically, and militarily bipolar order rather than the U.S.-dominated world of the previous hundred years or so and before that the Great Britain-dominated one. The series of meetings in Beijingearlier this year between senior officials from the Chinese government and foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, and the secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) underlined this. At these meetings, the principal topics of conversation were to finally seal a China-GCC Free Trade Agreement and deeper strategic cooperation in a region where U.S. dominance is showing signs of retreat,according to local news reports.

By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com

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China And The U.S. Are Battling For Influence Over Iraqi Oil - OilPrice.com

Iraqi Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, called on the United States and the international coalition to assume a greater role in combating ISIS, which he said was still active in various regions in western Iraq.

His comments came during a meeting on Sunday with the new commander of the US Central Command (Centcom), General Michael Kurilla, in Baghdad.

A statement by the premiers office said that the two officials discussed bilateral security and military cooperation, the ongoing war on terrorism, and the latest operations of the Iraqi armed forces against ISIS remnants.

In this regard, Kadhimi underlined the importance of maintaining the momentum in the war on terrorism and preventing ISIS cells from growing and thus jeopardizing the security of Iraqis and the region.

Kurilla, for his part, commended the combat skills of the Iraqi security forces and their capacity to implement their new field missions and exploit the full potential of the Iraqi air forces.

Meanwhile, Danish Defense Minister Morten Bodskov emphasized the commitment of the international coalition to support the Iraqi armed forces in their war against terrorism.

Bodskov met on Monday in Baghdad with his Iraqi counterpart, Juma Inad Saadoun, to discuss bilateral relations and joint cooperation in a number of military, technical and other fields.

A statement by the Iraqi Defense Ministry said that the Danish minister expressed his appreciation for the sacrifices made by the Iraqis in their battles against terrorism and the challenges facing the country, stressing the commitment of the international coalition to support the Iraqi armed forces in their war against terrorism.

In this context, Dr. Hussein Allawi, Adviser to the Prime Minister for Security Sector Reform, told Asharq Al-Awsat that Iraqi-international defense relations were remarkably improving under Kadhimis government, through bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the field of combating terrorism, exchange of information, and joint exercises.

Read more:
Kadhimi to the International Coalition: ISIS is Active in Western Iraq - Asharq Al-awsat - English

Though remembered positively by many, Albright's sanctions on Iraq killed thousands

Former President Bill Clintons Secretary of State Madeleine Albright passed away on March 23, 2022. Her death was met with a commemorative op-ed piece by Hillary Clinton in The New York Times. Former President George W. Bush made a commemorative post on his Instagram. President Joe Biden spoke in commemoration, calling her a force for goodness, grace and decency, and Bill Clinton, whose presidency she served under as ambassador to the U.N. and then as secretary of state, called her a passionate force for freedom, democracy and human rights.

A simple fact of politics is that political rhetoric has the tendency to simplify issues. When dealing with foreign policy, it has been noted enough times that freedom and democracy are used frequently as buzzwords to refer to American interests. Bush himself claimed that the central objective of intervention in Iraq was to free its people. However, when examining Albrights legacy it becomes clear that in her foreign policy objectives she did not symbolize these things. As secretary of state under the Clinton administration in the years leading up to the invasion of Iraq, Albright oversaw the implementation of severe sanctions against Iraq, preventing the import of any commodities into the country except for food and medical supplies. However, as the sanctions themselves were implemented, many citizens did find themselves without medical equipment, and children especially suffered malnutrition as a result of a food shortage. The exact death toll is heavily contested, but estimates put the death toll among Iraqi children alone as 567,000. The measures Albright oversaw are also cited as motivating factor in the Sept. 11 attacks on the twin towers.

The Iraq War happened in 2003 under the Bush presidency, causing between 186,176 and 209,391 violent civilian deaths to date. Though some dispute this, many believe that the destabilization of the region that occurred as a result created the power vacuum that allowed groups like ISIS to emerge. The devastation that resulted had been predicted U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) spoke out against the invasion before it happened, saying there were not yet any released estimates of the probable tens of thousands of deaths among Iraqi civilians. The possibility of a fraction of the actual fallout served as a deterrent enough for him.

In 1996, Albright was interviewed and asked about her thoughts on the impact of her sanctions. At the time, the estimated death toll for children was more than half a million. When confronted with this issue, Albright admitted that the choice to level sanctions was difficult, but said that the price is worth it. Iraq is now understood to have been a primarily economic conflict for the United States it cannot be denied that Saddam Hussein was a terrible leader, but our interest had more to do with oil than anything else. Albright clearly was fine with more than half a million Iraqi children dying to keep oil cheap. Like much of the rest of the American governmental apparatus, when push came to shove, she saw foreign lives as disposable.

At the beginning of the semester, I published an article about the role of American apathy in perpetuating the Saudi-led war in Yemen. Now, as Albrights name is circulated, I find the problem of apathy emerging once again. Albrights role in perpetuating this humanitarian crisis has long gone unnoticed. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, and appeared in episodes of Gilmore Girls and Parks and Recreation. But apart from more progressive outlets like Democracy Now! and Al Jazeera, mainstream news has said little about this aspect of her legacy since her death. As American imperialism continues its destructive path through the Middle East, and as America condemns Russian President Vladimir Putin for committing atrocities not unlike our own, we collectively must reckon with the results of our interventionism. Even when we are justified in condemning other countries, our words do not carry the same weight if we ourselves are guilty of the same crimes. Albrights actions in Iraq helped radicalize people like Osama bin Laden. China also heavily condemned the war when it happened, providing a justification for their current global economic expansion.

The lives of foreign children are not worth less than those of American children, and Albright has died with the blood of many children on her hands. And even after all the death, the Bush administrations purported objective to end tyranny in this world was not met. People like Hillary Clinton and Biden, who supported the invasion in 2003, and Bush, who oversaw the war itself as president, are just as guilty of human rights violations as Albright. People like them wield a great amount of power not only in the political sphere but in the sphere of American ideology as well. When they refuse to even acknowledge the effect of their actions on the rest of the world, the American public is encouraged to be apathetic as well, to dismiss the lives of Iraqi or otherwise foreign citizens as, at the end of the day, irrelevant. The American public is kept complacent over foreign intervention. And, speaking practically, as long as there are people like them in power, there will never be peace in the Middle East.

As a high-ranking diplomat, and later as secretary of state, Albrights career consisted of more than sanctioning Iraq. However, the conditions she created in the Middle East have gone unrecognized in the mainstream, and as we continue on the same path in countries like Yemen, this is the aspect of her political career that we need to confront the most. We need to take a serious look at our own interventionism, and a serious anti-war movement needs to develop. We will not be able to reckon with the challenge of American imperialism until we are willing to criticize it harshly. As long as we are silent, as long as we are apathetic, as long as we honor those who are most guilty, we allow this cycle of death to continue.

Desmond Keuper is a sophomore majoring in philosophy.

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Madeline Albright's role in the Iraq War should be confronted - Binghamton University Pipe Dream

As Washington withdraws from the region, Beijing expands its influence.

Despite ongoing regional and global turmoil, China hasnt ceased its investments in the Middle East. A recent report from Fudan University in Shanghai revealed that Beijing secured a new construction deal in Iraq for around $10.5 billion in 2021 a sum constituting almost one-sixth of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) investments that year.

Iraq has emerged as Chinas number one trading partner in the region and third-largest oil supplier, right after Saudi Arabia and Russia. Its energy reserves and strategic location near the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz prove critical for the BRI. As Washington withdraws from the region, Beijing is poised to expand its influence; rising economic relations with Baghdad will likely translate to political influence over time. The US, Iran, and Trkiye, all actively and deeply connected to Iraq, are closely watching Chinas moves.

Geopolitical threat

China's growing presence in the Middle East under the BRI appears to stymie US regional strategy. While the US has been trying to disengage from the Middle East for over a decade, Washington is also concerned about the threat to its still-strong political, economic and military presence in the region. China's possible role in the reconstruction of Iraq and growingChina-Iran relations are accelerating Beijings presence in Iraq at the expense of the US.

China-Iraq energy cooperation has been the cornerstone of their bilateral relationship since 1981, when the China Petroleum Engineering and Construction Corporation started operations in the country. However, the raising of relations to a strategic partnership in 2015 was an alarming turning point for the US.

Iraq requires a massive $88 billion for its post-Daesh reconstructionneeds an ample opportunity for Beijing to increase its visibility through investment and construction. While bilateral tradetopped$30 billion in 2018, relations were enhanced under former Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, whodescribed the ties as poised for a quantum leap during Beijings 2019 visit. In the first half of 2021, trade volume between the two countriesexceeded$16 billion.

Contrary to the US hard power initiatives, China uses soft power strategies in Iraq, particularly economic investments and non-intervention politics. Beijing has recently been benefittingfrom post-conflict opportunities with mediation efforts and commercial commitment as opposed to military involvement and discourse elsewhere.

It has also already used its UNveto right many times, acting with Russia and against the Western bloc on the Syrian conflict. It is more active in major regional files like Afghanistan and will likely limit US political and military power in Iraq in the foreseeable future.

Iran's benefits

China's regional strategy aims to establish a geographical framework that will create a new balancing force against the West, led by China and Iran. In this respect, the US' downgraded military role in Iraq has opened the door to China globally and Iran regionally.

Having a wide range of political, military, and social influence over Iraq, Iran is in a strategic posture in the US-China quarrel. Strong bilateral relations between Iran and China exist in different fields, and Tehran is becoming more dependent on China due to its economic downturn.

Last March, China and Iransigned a 25-year cooperation agreement in which Beijing promised to invest $400 billion in Irans economy in exchange for oil supplies. This reality opens the door to strengthening China in areas where Iran is influential, particularly within Iraq and in the Middle East in general.

It is no secret that Iran has strong economic relations with Iraq, as well as its ability to intervene in the country's political scene and the existence of dozens of militias it supports. Tehran, which is troubled with the US presence in Iraq, indicates this discomfort with attacks on American assets through its proxies both in politics and in the field. It prefers Beijing as a regional partner. Iranian proxies also regularly threaten Trkiye and Turkish military bases in the north of Iraq.

What about Trkiye?

Iraq has geostrategic significance for the BRIs land route that will link the Middle East to Europe through Iran, Iraq, and Trkiye. At this point, Ankara gives specific attention to the project as it expects significant economic profits.

In 2014, China opened its consulate general in Erbil and announced several billion-dollarinvestments in the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), with which Trkiye also has close economic, military, and political relations.

Yet Chinas closeness to Iran and their alliance in Iraq will have negative repercussions on Trkiye's political and economic relations with Iraq. Notably, while Tehran seeks to exert China as a balancing factor against the US in Iraq, it may also want to use China's investment strategy as a balancing factor against Trkiye's influence in the KRG.

Taking Geng Shuangs, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, call last December for Ankara to "respect for sovereignty" regarding its military operations within Iraqi territory, it may mean that China's influence over Iraq goes beyond economic and geopolitical domination. It is quite clear that this situation is in Iran's favour. However, in the short term, it is unlikely that even a powerful actor like Beijing could affect the indispensability of Ankara, which is the key country in marketing the energy of the KRG to the world, and its gateway to the West.

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of TRT World.

We welcome all pitches and submissions to TRT World Opinion please send them via email, to opinion.editorial@trtworld.com

Source: TRT World

Originally posted here:
Chinas Iraq investments and its growing foothold in the Middle East - TRT World