To: boris_a who wrote (124080 ) 1/31/2004 1:52:12 PM From: Hawkmoon Read Replies (2) | Respond to Hawk, I thought we're discussing formalism of international law, not motivations behind the scene. breaking.tcm.ie Richard Perle, a former US Assistant Defence Secretary, said the French anti-war stance was driven by economic interests. French oil giant TotalFinaElf has exclusive exploration contracts worth €60bn - €75bn to develop the massive Majnoon and Bin Umar oilfields in southern Iraq, he said.He said oil experts who had analysed the deal described it as “extraordinarily lopsided” in favour of the French company. latimes.com Iraqi-German relations have witnessed a notable improvement after the firm positive stand of Germany in rejecting the launching of a military attack against Iraq by the U.S.," the government-run newspaper Iraq Daily stated in an article on the trade fair. "Accordingly, President Saddam Hussein has ordered to give priority to German companies to enter the Iraqi market." As of last month, Iraq had negotiated contracts for future oil exploration worth as much as $38 billion with companies from Russia, China and France, according to Deutsche Bank. But little progress has been made on those contracts because of the U.N. sanctions, and there is skepticism that they will all pan out, according to a U.S. Department of Energy report on Iraq. nationalreview.com Needless to say, one of the largest delegations in attendance came from France (who would have guessed?). Paris, which is Saddam's largest trading partner, was well represented by 81 French firms. The obvious moral dilemmas that arise from doing business with the likes of a Saddam did not seem to put off participants, let alone prick their consciences. Take, for example, France's E-Sat satellite telephone company, whose trade-fair representative told the Associated Press, "We are not here for politics but for pure business." washingtontimes.com Documents from Saddam Hussein's oil ministry reveal he used oil to bribe top French officials into opposing the imminent U.S.-led invasion of Iraq globalpolicy.org The biggest loser could be TotalFinaElf. Iraq's oil potential suggests its exports could climb rapidly if sanctions were lifted to an estimated EUR25 billion per year from EUR3.2 billion in 2001. The French oil firm spent six years in the 1990s doing preparatory work on the giant Majnoon and Bin Umar oilfields, but it has no guarantee it will be named operator of the fields by Iraqi authorities on the day economic sanctions are removed.
