Sunday, June 20, 2010

Zalmay Khalilzad back in Iraq’s oil patch as a businessman ...

Then-KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani turns the switch as former US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad (L) and Ashti Hawrami (R) KRG minister of natural resources, look on during the opening ceremony of the Khurmala oilfield, 10 kms south of the city of Erbil, 310 km north of Baghdad, on July 18, 2009. (SAFIN HAMED/AFP/Getty Images)
IraqOilReport/ here

"..... Khalilzad’s efforts to broker reconciliation had failed to yield a lasting agreement.

Now he was back in the country’s oil patch – this time, as a private businessman. He had just begun parlaying his diplomatic stature into a new consulting business, Khalilzad Associates.... "My motivation, besides making money, has been to ..............." Khalilzad said in a recent interview in his office down the street from the White House.

Last month he was made a member of the board of directors of RAK Petroleum, a UAE-based company with prominent Emirati and Saudi backing. On Thursday, Khalilzad was voted to a seat on the board of directors of Norwegian oil company DNO, one of the first firms to sign an oil contract in Iraq's Kurdish area, in 2004. (RAK owns 30 percent of DNO.)........[now] aligned himself with a company that helped open Kurdistan’s oil sector and widened the rift between Erbil and Baghdad. Khalilzad either no longer agrees with U.S. policy, or never did.

A year after the auspicious Erbil ceremony leaders in Kurdistan remain at odds with Baghdad – and Khalilzad, some observers say, is partly to blame.

(continue/ here)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

FLC,

check this out :)

Video of Activists in Oakland California: Protesters Picket Israeli Cargo Ship
In Oakland, California an Israeli ship was blocked by protesters for the first time in history. 700-1000 protesters blocked three different gates at 5:30 A.M. keeping dockworkers from unloading the Israeli cargo. ILWU members refused to cross picketline - citing "health & safety" provisions of their contract. Management demanded "instant arbitration." The arbitrator took a look at the picketlines at each gate to the SSA Terminal and ruled that ILWU members were justified in refusing to cross. All dockworkers were sent home with FULL PAY. Special thanks to the Brass Liberation Orchestra for their performances today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpKObPFtcBA