Iraq to Sell Oil in Dinars Says CBI
There have been several events that have recently occurred in Baghdad. On 17 Sept the al-Iraqiyah TV news station hosted an interview with the Central Bank governor Dr. Sinan al-Shabibi, CBI Advisor Mudher Mohammed Saleh and an unidentified Iraq parliament member. The interview was about the Iraqi dinar currency and the deleting of the three zero’s. The interview lasted about 30 minutes however, we were able to record 20 minutes of the interview. After the recording I had the interview translated from Arabic to English. I have included the translation in this post for all my readers.
There has been a lot of discussion in regards to the deleting of the zero’s or what most people in Baghdad consider as changing the Iraqi dinar currency. My close contacts in the banking industry have recently informed me that as of yet no decision has been made in regards to the changing of the currency. There has been a lot of resistance from the Iraqi Parliament as some members do not believe it is the right time. They are not alone in this thought process. Economists have said that changing the currency would harm the Iraqi economy. They feel that the economy is just not strong enough at this time to take on a complex endeavor as changing the Iraq currency. The Iraqi Parliament holds in their hands the detailed report from the CBI on the deleting of the zeros. However, they have not placed it in the agenda to be discussed and voted on. There has not yet been a date assigned for this. I will keep an eye out and will inform you when they start talking about this issue. Hopefully, in the near future.
The Iraqi government continues to meet and debate on other matters such as what to do about implementing the Erbil agreement. In local Baghdad it is sometimes referred to as the 19 Terms Paper. A Kurdish delegation will be coming to Baghdad and meeting with the Central Government to talk about the Erbil agreement. The Kurdish group is coming to talk about a mechanism to implement the terms of the Erbil Agreement and not to renegotiate the terms of the 19 Terms Paper. Some of the terms are the Article 140, the Oil and Gas Law, and the Iraq Census that desperately needs to be completed. You must have the census completed before you can complete the Article 140.
As the Kurdish delegation are coming to Baghdad the Iraq Parliament Speaker Usamah al-Nujayfi will be travelling around the major cities in Iraq meeting various political blocs. This has the backing of the Prime Minister Nuri Maliki. All are trying desperately to mend the rift that have occurred in the past with the different political blocs.
Chapter VII
As I’ve said in the past several months, UN Chapter VII continues in Iraq as President Jalal Talabani makes his way to New York to attend meetings and lobby for the removal of Chapter VII. The next major review for the Chapter VII sanctions will be in December 2011. I believe that the sanctions will continue into 2012.
Kuwait Port of Mubarak
The new Kuwait is not a welcomed project for the Iraqi government and it creates nothing but problems for the commerce, shipping, fish hatcheries, iraq oil platforms etc. There is no cooperation between the two countries on this project as Iraq wants to build the Grand Faw Port which was designed a few years ago. Way before Kuwait even thought of their Port of Mubarak. Tensions will flair in the future over these two projects.
For those of you that continue to believe that Chapter VII has been lifted, read the links I provided below.
http://en.aswataliraq.info/Default1.aspx?page=article_page&id=144905&l=1
http://en.aswataliraq.info/Default1.aspx?page=article_page&id=144926&l=1
Let’s talk about the interview on the state run al-Iraqiyah TV with the CBI representatives and the unidentified Iraq Parliament member.
During the interview Dr. Sinan Shabibi sometimes sounded confused, at times incoherent and often repeated himself. He certainly did not prepare himself for the interview on al-Iraqiyah TV. The CBI Advisor Mudher Mohammad Saleh appeared prepared for the interview.
During the interview the TV producer asked about how the CBI was going to make sure that no counterfeit dinars will be involved in the 30 Trillion dinar notes. This part was odd to me because Dr. Shabibi answers the question with an answer that had nothing to do with the question asked.
One thing significant I found in the interview is that the CBI Advisor Saleh mentioned that Iraq would be selling oil and having the oil be paid for in Iraqi dinar. Meaning that Iraq dinar will be a reserve currency for other countries.
This will be all for now as I will be posting more later. As always, thank you for being a loyal reader and joining the American Contractor mailing list.
E-mail: ac@americancontractor.com
www.americancontractor.com
**********************
**********************
You can download snap shots of the interview.
PDF File 500kb
CBI Interview
17 Sept 2011 Interview on Iraqiyah TV with CBI Governor Sinan al-Shabibi, A unidentified Parliament Member and CBI Advisor Mudher Mohammed Saleh.
The Parliament Person:
This old currency when it will be destroyed, there must be awareness, because this old currency could go back to the market again and to the recharging process one again.
The producer of the show:
Destroyed by a specialized committee, through them?
The Parliament Person:
Yes, of course, there is nothing ultimate in this world, because even the committee could be infected by the corruption, so there must be a double procedures to prevent the old currency from been leaking out.
The producer of the show:
Did you consider such fears acceptable, as it is come from other people?
The Parliament Person:
Of course its acceptable, but the CBI personnel must make a strategy with one way only so when the currency get through it, there will be no way back, and thatís mean the destruction process must be in it correct way with the supervise of a specialized persons and go a step by step and also with the committee monitoring which is still in the process of develop and grow up.
The producer of the show:
Dr. Sinan Al Shabibi the printed currency right now is 30 Trillion Dinars? Do you have a statistic way to know the stock of this currency? And how you will make sure that no fake dominations will become a part of this 30 Trillion?
Dr. Sinan Al Shebibi:
By God its, I mean this is part of the faking process that possibly become a part of process like Ahhhhhh, trying to Ahhh!!, entering through the Banks and these stuff, and for this truth we watch very good, and we of course have statistics I mean the currency, currency we discover fake, I mean I didn’t come to and in all the dominations I mean let us say 0003 something very little very little a very simple number let us say has an effect but I mean it will be watched in a very good way but this this not it be in truth it is the limitation of the process or the continue like we heard in the conference and such a stuff, because this is very limited, but Mafia and such a stuff is very limited its an open case not open like this but that doesnít mean that they will come carrying a bags of money on their shoulders Ahhhhh Ahhhhh, the subject is crystallized and there is a control above such a thing Ahhh Ahhhh checking and checking the currency and and and and, are they fake or something like this, this is in delivering in main.
The producer of the show:
So can we know the fake currency? Even if it was professionally faked?
Dr. Sinan Al Shebibi:
Yes, Yes, like what we are doing right now, like the truth right now will not be different
The producer of the show:
Thatís mean that you printed the new currency with the value of 30 Trillion after deleting the three zeros? So is there is any increasing in this number according to the government neediness or the needs? Or we reached a final number which is 30 Trillion?
Dr. Sinan Al Shebibi:
30 they are the stock right now, thatís mean that the 30 that exist will be reduced to 30 Trillions to 30??? Ahhhhhh!!!! “Billion”
Mudher Mohammed:
As a number it will be reduced and as an amount it will be reduced also because it a restructuring of the whole currency.
The producer of the show:
So from the economical side it is very useful to strength the Iraqi Dinar? And will the CBI continue selling the U.S. Dollars and working with the new currency as well?
Mudher Mohammed Saleh:
The people will submit to the new currency and they have to have it or they will face punishment like tax, and there will be a big dominations and small dominations which is consisted of the coins, if we made two or three big value domination this will reduce the stock of currency (four Trillions) and it will become 2.9 billion and this will make the system thinner and make it more settle.
The producer of the show:
Dr. Hayder (The parliament person) you are a parliament authority, we find a lot of people rejecting this process because Iraq from the political side is not done yet or not developed yet to get through such a process and these people saying these when Iraq complete some of it more important sides and develop enough and then we will be ready to go through such a step?
The Parliament Person:
I will answer your question but first I will commit on the work evaluating.
Of course the suggestion will consist of a varied dominations but the 25 Dinar and above like 50 or 100 Dinar will be more than 65% or even 75% and the rest dominations will be the 25% so faking process will be a very easy to control because the big value currency will be easy to identify wither it official or fake and faking them almost impossible.
Dr. Sinan Al Shebibi:
And we also in truthÖ. Didnít print the currency, itís a strategic thing.
The Parliament Person:
We all the time start such a process with the stock we have the one used between the banks and this will protected from being faked, but the one that the people exchange will may be fake,
The producer of the show:
Is this thing will be a stuck point within the Parliament?
The Parliament Person:
The CBI provide us with a completed studied documents of the whole project but some parts still in the process of developing and we will have a good time to finish these sides and the project will be established at the 2013 and this will leave a good time period to study every thing once again and fill all the holes in the project to make it perfect, and the parliament will have the time to negotiate about this project in front of every one.
The producer of the show:
Dr. Sinan, one of the major duties for the CBI is to raise the value of the currency and make it a welcomed currency where ever we go with it, and also will the government set a time to sell amount of Iraqi Oil for Iraqi Dinars and remove it all from the outside and make the preparations for the process of changing the currency?
Mudher Mohammed Saleh:
As I think that the Iraqi currency amounts is very little out side and its there only in the neighboring countries like Syria, Iran, Turkey, Saudi.. etc, and it went there for a tourism and small trading process only, your question is that when the Iraqi Dinar will be a reserve currency for other countries, and my answer is that Iraq have a lot of goods and his abilities is very strong and if the steps goes right in the future the Iraqi currency will be a reserve currency for other countries.
The producer of the show:
What is the stock of reserves right now?
Mudher Mohammed Saleh:
It’s about 58 Billion U.S.D and this is the highest number that Iraq reached through it economical history.
The producer of the show:
Ok, Dr. Sinan, a currency with three languages, Arabic, Kurdish, and English, is such a thing possible and is there any country have such a currency or may be with more languages? And dose the Iraqi constitution allow this?
Dr. Sinan Al Shebibi:
(The conclusion of what he said is that it’s possible but with shortened the writings and makes the languages refer to the amount of the domination and not a long sentence)
The producer of the show:
What if you found that the stock is more than 30 Trillion?
Mudher Mohammed Saleh:
Thatís mean there will be a problem in the whole of the study and the whole project, and even though we have a lot of way to prevent such a thing from happening and even if it happen we have ways to correct it
End of Translation
