Shorter Iraqi Council= US Don't Let The Door Hit You In The Ass On The Way Out!

Iraqi Leaders Call for Pullout Timetable

By SALAH NASRAWI

The Associated Press
Tuesday, November 22, 2005; 12:06 PM

CAIRO, Egypt -- Iraqi leaders at a reconciliation conference reached out to the Sunni Arab community by calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces and saying the country's opposition had a "legitimate right" of resistance....

This goes a long way in validating thew continuing insurgency and all but calls the US/UK and occupation force. It is more chilling when read in conjunction with this paragraph a couple of paragraphs down.

In Egypt, the final communique's attempt to define terrorism omitted any reference to attacks against U.S. or Iraqi forces. Delegates from across the political and religious spectrum said the omission was intentional. They spoke anonymously, saying they feared retribution....

Most likely this omission was made with the threat of a Sunni walkout imminent. However, there are more than a few Shia insurgent groups in the Basra area, as well as those of mixed origin.

On Monday, Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr suggested U.S.-led forces should be able to leave Iraq by the end of next year, saying the one-year extension of the mandate for the multinational force in Iraq by the U.N. Security Council this month could be the last.

"By the middle of next year we will be 75 percent done in building our forces and by the end of next year it will be fully ready," he told the Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera....

What the Iraqis really fear is the abduction of their oil reserves at gunpoint. The Independent puts it quite nicely:

On the eve of the war in Iraq, there was a shocking moment of clarity in the Commons when Jack Straw revealed that when it was all over, France and Germany would not be allowed to "get their snouts in the trough"....

Straw's remarks revealed the focused on Iraqs oil. The World's four oil giants (BP, Exxon, Chevron and Shell) , have been desperate to get back into Iraq, since being booted out in the nationalisation of 1972....
Iraq's new constitution - practically written by US and Foreign office advisors, guarantees a major role for foreign companies. Production Sharing Agreements would hand over control of dozens of oil fields, like the gian Majnoon .

I am not an oil & gas analyst nor am I a constitutional expert but here are the salient provisions:

From the Iraqi Constitution (Link opens a PDF)

Article 109:
Oil and gas are the property of the Iraqi people in all provinces and districts.

Article 110:
1 - The federal government handles, in cooperation with the producing province and district cabinets, the management of oil and gas extracted from the present fields, provided the proceeds would be evenly distributed, in keeping with the demographic distribution all around the country.
In addition, a share shall be allotted, for a specific period of time, to the afflicted provinces, which were unjustly deprived by the previous regime, and later affected, in a way to secure abalanced development of the different areas in the country. This shall be regulated by a law.

2 - The Federal government, along with the producing province and district cabinets, shall put forth strategic policies that are necessary to promote oil and gas resources in order to provide the Iraqi people with the utmost benefits by adopting the latest market values and investment promotion techniques.

Issam el Jalabi. the former Oil Minister and President of National Oil Company put forward an interesting critique at Alexander's Gas and Oil Connection. Mr. el Jalabi argues that the new constitution puts ultimate power over present gas and oil, fields, at the provincial level rather than the federal level. Also, the constitution leaves up in the air who has administrative control over and NEW fields. These just feeds into article 150:

Article (150): Laws legislated in Kurdistan since 1992 remain in effect, and decisions made by the government of the Kurdistan region - including contracts and court decisions - are effective unless they are voided or amended according to the laws of the Kurdistan region by the concerned body, as long as they are not against the constitution.

On the eve of the war in Iraq, there was a shocking moment of clarity in the Commons when Jack Straw revealed that when it was all over, France and Germany would not be allowed to "get their snouts in the trough".

This public slap in the face to Britain's biggest EU partners gave an insight into what was really concentrating US and British minds. Having constructed a tortuous case for war over Iraq's lack of co-operation with the UN security Council, plans were being laid for post-Saddam Iraq excluding non-coalition countries.

Straw's remarks revealed the focused on Iraq's oil. The World's four oil giants (BP, Exxon, Chevron and Shell) , have been desperate to get back into Iraq, since being booted out in the nationalisation of 1972.

Iraq sits on the world's second largest proven oil reserves, expected to increase to reserves of 200-plus billion barrels of high-grade crude. No one doubts Bush's determination to ensure "friendly" companies gain the lion's share of lucrative oil contracts - worth hundreds of billions of dollars over many decades.

Iraq's new constitution - practically written by US and Foreign office advisors, guarantees a major role for foreign companies. Production Sharing Agreements would hand over control of dozens of oil fields, like the gian Majnoon .

After next month's elections, when a new Iraqi government takes over and contracts are signed it will become clearer how much oil was part of London and Washington's pre-war plans.

The WaPo article concludes on this sobering but cryptic note:

The Cairo meeting was marred by differences between participants at times, and at one point Shiite and Kurdish delegates stormed out of a closed session when one of the speakers said they had sold out to the Americans.