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Politics : War -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (18417)	12/13/2002 4:32:52 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23908

So much for Russia's "pro-Arab" agenda.... LOL: Iraq Snubs Moscow, Scraps Big Russia Oil Contract Thu Dec 12,12:24 PM ET By Richard Balmforth MOSCOW (Reuters) - Iraq has scrapped a $3.7-billion oilfield deal with Russia's LUKOIL, the company said on Thursday, dealing a blow to Moscow's hopes of keeping a strong economic foothold there after U.S. military action. And the decision seemed sure to rebound on Baghdad's political ties with Russia, Iraq's closest ally on the United Nations Security Council. A LUKOIL spokesman said an Iraqi deputy oil minister had told company president Vagit Alekperov by letter that the contract to develop Iraq's huge West Qurna oilfield had been canceled on December 9. In an angry reaction, spokesman Alexander Vasilenko said LUKOIL would challenge the cancellation of the deal -- regarded as the jewel in the crown of Russian contracts in Iraq -- in the courts. "We do not understand how a petty bureaucrat from the Oil Ministry of Iraq can cancel a law which has been passed by Iraq's parliament," he said, reacting sharply to what appeared to be a significant political snub. Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Muhammad Rasheed, attending an OPEC meeting in Vienna, would say only that contracts were liable to cancellation if companies did not fulfil their drilling obligations. "Any company that does not fulfil their obligation over a long time, then we will be free to cancel their contract. This is the policy," he said. Russia, with a long-standing partnership with Iraq going back to Soviet times, has fought hard to protect its economic contracts and interests there as the prospects of U.S. military action aimed at toppling Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein have grown. [...] story.news.yahoo.com As I once put it, Russia considers her Arab "allies" as mere expendable pawns... to be sold out at the first opportunity. Sounds like Iraq is a tougher sucker, eh?