KUWAIT CITY, June 1, (Agencies): Chairman and Managing Director of Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) Sami Al-Rushaid announced Tuesday that Kuwait and Iraq would reach an agreement on the exploitation of the oil wells on their border areas soon.
Speaking to reporters after the award ceremony of the Chairman’s Award for Health, Safety and Environment, Al-Rushaid said the two countries set up a joint panel to probe the border issue with KOC leading the Kuwaiti side.
He downplayed concerns about the impact of Iraq’s exploitation of its southern oil wells on Kuwait’s interests, saying that Kuwait’s two northern wells of Al-Retqa and Al-Abdaly account for small percentage of the country’s oil production.
“The contract, signed by KOC and Shell on the development of Jurassic oil gas wells in northern Kuwait, has been brought into force recently,” he said, noting that experts from both sides are supervising the project.
“KOC is implementing a long-term development strategy running through 2020. The strategy entails a five-year plan and annual plans envisaging the development of key projects in the gas industry, pipelines projects and a new hospital,” Al-Rushaid pointed out.
Regarding the environment projects, KOC has recently signed an agreement with Kuwait’s Environment Public Authority (EPA) on combating air pollution and gas emissions, he went on to say.
“In 2009 the company managed to cut down the burning of the oil-associated gas to 2.6 percent, well below the target of 3.4 percent. We hope to bring the percentage to less than one percent in the coming two years,” Al-Rushaid revealed.
In Burgan oil well, south of Kuwait, KOC was able to reduce the figure to just one percent since the well is close to residential areas, he added.
Ratified
Iraq’s supreme court on Tuesday ratified the results of the country’s March general election, clearing the way for a faster pace to government formation talks which remain in limbo.
The ruling confirms initial results released in late March that put ex-premier Iyad Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc in the lead, followed closely by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s State of Law alliance.
“The court has decided to approve the results of the elections,” supreme court chief Midhat al-Mahmoud said.
Mahmoud reiterated a previous court decision, however, that deals a blow to Allawi’s claim to have the right to be awarded the first opportunity to form a government.
“The biggest parliamentary bloc ... will be decided in the first session of the parliament,” he said, indicating that a coalition agreed before the Council of Representatives has its first session would gain primacy over Iraqiya.
Iraq’s constitution requires that parliament be seated within 15 days of the certification of election results.
Iraqiya won 91 seats in the Iraq’s 325-member parliament, followed by State of Law with 89.
The Iraqi National Alliance (INA), led by Shiite religious groups, took 70 seats, while a coalition of parties hailing from Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region hold 59 seats.
The fact that no clear winner emerged from the March 7 poll has meant that protracted coalition negotiations have ensued as blocs jockey to form a parliamentary majority.
Iraqi forces took full control of security checkpoints into Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone on Tuesday, a largely symbolic step as the United States prepares to withdraw all but 50,000 troops from Iraq by September.
A swathe of central Baghdad off limits to most Iraqis, the Green Zone — also known as the International Zone, or IZ — has been synonymous with the US military occupation of Iraq since the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Responsibility for the area on the banks of the Tigris, sealed off by grey concrete blast walls, was handed over to Iraq on Jan 1, 2009 when US forces came under an Iraqi mandate, but six checkpoints controlling access were still jointly run.
“For more than the last year, we’ve just been in an oversight capacity at the ECPs (Entry Control Points),” Lieutenant-Colonel Greg McVay told Reuters. “At this point, they’ve got it and our soldiers are coming off.”
The handover comes as Washington prepares to end all combat operations in August and cut troop numbers from just under 90,000 now to 50,000 by Sept 1.
Meanwhile, the number of Iraqi civilians killed in acts of violence in May was the highest monthly tally so far this year, figures released on Tuesday showed.
Overall, 337 people — 275 civilians, 45 police and 17 soldiers — died as a result of attacks in May, according to data compiled by the health, interior and defence ministries.
The total number was only slightly higher than last month’s total of 328, but more than double May 2009’s toll of 155. The previous high for civilian deaths this year was 274 in April.
Last month saw a series of major attacks across the country, with 110 people killed in an estimated five dozen bombings on May 10 alone, the deadliest day Iraq has seen this year.
Four days later, 25 people were killed in a double bomb attack at a football match in the northern town of Tal Afar that was unprotected by security forces.
And on May 21, a car bomb in a market in the central Iraqi town of Khales killed 30 people.
A total of 718 people — 520 civilians, 141 police and 57 soldiers — were wounded last month. The figures also showed that 55 insurgents were killed and 660 arrested.
Five US soldiers died last month, including two in hostile action, according to an AFP toll based on independent website www.icasualties.org. Overall, 4,400 American soldiers have been killed since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
The Iranian ambassador in Baghdad said the recent release of two Iranians from Iraqi custody is not an indication of any impending deal to free three Americans held by Tehran on spying charges.
Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi told The Associated Press the fate of the Americans, who have been held since July, is in the hands of the Iranian judiciary and has no connection to the release of two Iranians earlier this month.
“There were no deals,” Qomi said. “They (Americans) are in the custody of the judiciary system.”
The detained Americans — Sarah Shourd, 31; her boyfriend, Shane Bauer, 27; and their friend Josh Fattal, 27 — were arrested along the Iraqi border. Iran has accused them of espionage, but their families say the three were hiking in northern Iraq’s mountainous Kurdish region and if they strayed into Iran, it was unintentional.
In a goodwill gesture by Iran, their mothers were allowed to visit them earlier in May — for the first time since they were taken into Iranian custody.
The visit, along with the release by Baghdad of two Iranians held for years in US and later Iraqi custody, raised the possibility of a behind-the-scenes swap for the Americans’ freedom. The option came into focus especially after Iranian leaders suggested a link between the American trio and a number of Iranians held by the US who Tehran would like to see released.
During an interview with The AP at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad late Sunday, Qomi discussed the case of the three Americans.
“The families came and visited them,” he said. “The judiciary system has a fair position on this matter. We hope that their issue will be solved.”
The Americans’ detention comes at an increasingly tense period between Iran and the West, concerned over Iran’s refusal to stop its controversial uranium enrichment that the US and its allies fear masks a push to make nuclear weapons. The UN is weighing a new set of sanctions against Iran over the program, which Tehran maintains is only peaceful.