US Angry at Saudi Role in Iraq

Some neo-cons have long favored changing policy towards the Saudis and even promoting regime change. Articles in the New York times and elsewhere now show a drift of US policy toward more criticism of the Saudis. The Saudis promoted the ill-fated unity government of Hamas and Fatah much to the dismay of the US. The US and Israel have already lured Egypt and Jordan into supporting Abbas against Hamas.
The Saudis are very concerned with Shia and Iranian power in Iraq. Support for insurgents comes from the Saudis as well as foreign fighters. Certainly the Saudis will not abandon the Sunni cause in Iraq although they might be persuaded to join in the Quartet Egypt and Jordan in isolating Hamas. On the other hand the Saudis may hope to gain more respect for holding out for Palestinian unity or at least try to promote it.


POLITICS
U.S. Increasingly Frustrated With Saudi Role in Iraq: Report
2007-07-27 04:23am


The Bush administration has become increasingly frustrated with the government of Saudi Arabia after discovering evidence over several months indicating the kingdom is aiding Sunni insurgents in Iraq, a report Friday said.

The New York Times reported Friday that as early as January of this year, Saudi government officials showed an American envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, documents purporting to show that Iraq's prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Malik, is an agent of Iran and cannot be trusted.

One of those documents, the Times reported, claimed to indicate al-Maliki tipped off insurgent leader and radical Sh'ite cleric Moktada al-Sadr to "lie low" during the U.S. troop surge ordered by President Bush earlier this year because it was aimed, in part, at destroying al-Sadr's militia.

American reaction initially to the claims was skeptical, the paper said, but over the course of this year, Washington has come to view Saudi Arabia as not doing enough to insure stability in Iraq.

For one, said the report, an increasing number of insurgents from Saudi Arabia are being discovered in Iraq. Of the 60 to 80 fighters entering Iraq each month, U.S. military intelligence officials estimate half of those are coming from the oil-rich kingdom.

For another, American officials claimed to the Times they had seen evidence of Saudi Arabia's financial support to Sunni groups in Iraq.

Senior Bush administration officials said concerns would be raised with the Saudis next month with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates make a rare joint visit to Jidda, Saudi Arabia.

The paper said officials who spoke about the concerns, all on the condition of anonymity, had become equally frustrated that private conversations with Saudi officials about their government's counterproductive activities in Iraq had gone unchanged.

The Sunni-influenced Saudi government has not hidden its desire to help fellow Sunnis in Iraq. Last fall, in a meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney, Saudi King Abdullah Saudi Arabia might provide financial backing to Iraqi Sunnis in any war against Iraq's Shiites if the United States pulled its troops out of Iraq, American and Arab diplomats told the Times.

(c) 2007 Newsroom.

Iraqi Oil Minister: There are no legal unions in Iraq

So where are all the US unions screaming about the new democracy in Iraq where there are no legal unions. The US troops are fighting to secure a union-free Iraq! The main stream press will maintain a deafening silence on this you can be sure. But where are the big union organisations worldwide?

Shahrastani: No Legal Oil Unions in Iraq
Unions Object to Draft Hydrocarbons Law, Call for Shahrastani's Resignation
By BEN LANDO Posted 23 hr. 49 min. ago
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WASHINGTON, DC (UPI) -- Iraq's oil minister said Iraq's oil unions are not legitimate and have no more standing in the debate over the oil law than an ordinary citizen.

"There are no legal unions in Iraq," Hussein al-Shahristani said Wednesday in response to a question about various factions' positions on the controversial oil law. "Those people who call themselves representatives of the oil workers have not been elected to the position."

Shahristani spoke to UPI by phone from Baghdad.

The lone remaining law from the Saddam Hussein regime kept by U.S. occupying powers and the successive Iraqi government is the one that bans worker organizing in the public sector.

Despite that, workers have come together and leveraged their power. Since 2003 they've blocked numerous attempts to privatize management of both oil and other facilities and stopped work over disputes -- most recently early last month over the oil law and other unmet demands.

Earlier this month workers in the southern, oil-rich town of Basra marched in protest against the oil law and demanded Shahristani's resignation.

The law would govern exploration and development of Iraq's 115 billion barrels of proven reserves and unknown reserves to be found in under-explored areas. But the law is stuck over central government vs. regional/local control over certain oil fields. And the unions, along with other political elements, have led the charge that the law allows for contracts they see as too friendly to foreign oil companies