Iraq Invites Others To Join China in ‘Oil for Reconstruction’ Funding, as U.S. Shows Interest

Jan. 26, 2020 (EIRNS)—Mudhar Saleh, a senior financial adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, told Iraq’s Alforat satellite TV network that Iraq has invited the United States, Japan and South Korea to sign partnership agreements similar to the agreement with China, under which China will fund post-war reconstruction projects in exchange for oil supply, through a newly-created Iraqi-Chinese Reconstruction Fund.

“The U.S. has welcomed the idea and promised to respond to it,” Saleh reported, and Iraq is awaiting response from the two other countries. U.A.E.-based Zawya news service reported Saleh’s remarks on Jan. 19.

Such multiple arrangements could prove a seed-crystal of exactly the kind of international cooperation needed to “bring the tractors in, and get the soldiers out” to bring peace to Southwest Asia, as Lyndon LaRouche’s movement has proposed.

Zawya then reported the next day that Iraq is expecting to net some $1.75 billion in 2020 from the sale of 100,000 barrels per day of crude oil to China, under the oil-for-reconstruction arrangement, according to Saleh. Saleh said the Chinese funds will be included in the 2020 budget as part of allocations for post-war reconstruction projects, and reported that “Chinese companies have already been awarded two projects to rehabilitate a power thermal plant in Samara north of the capital Baghdad and complete giant oil storage tanks in the Southern Nasiriyah city, adding that only 25% of the tank project has been completed.”