An investment and political struggle disrupts the exploitation of the Muthanna desert

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[size=52]An investment and political struggle disrupts the exploitation of the Muthanna desert[/size]

[size=45]Al-Muthanna / Bashir Ali[/size]
[size=45]The issue of investment in the desert of Muthanna Governorate has taken on a wide controversy, accompanied by threats, threats, political interference and the release of strongly-worded statements by Islamic parties inside Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]The Iraqi government seriously resolved to open the investment field with Saudi Arabia. In 2018, a coordinating council was formed between Iraq and Saudi Arabia after a large Iraqi delegation, including the Iraqi Minister of Trade, visited Saudi Arabia. Several agreements were signed between the Iraqi and Saudi committees, the most important of which is Saudi Arabia’s investment in Iraqi lands. With vast areas extending from the border strip between the two countries to the Karbala desert, Muthanna and Najaf.[/size]
[size=45]The director of the Muthanna Investment Commission, Adel Al-Yasiri, told (Al-Mada), that "Al-Muthanna is one of the Iraqi governorates with the highest poverty rates in the country, 52%, according to the latest statistics of the Ministry of Planning, which necessitates the concerned authorities to invest in order to raise the level of income by providing Job opportunities for unemployed young people and graduates, and this happens through the entry of investment companies to Iraq.”[/size]
[size=45]He added, "Although there are investment projects within the governorate, they do not cover the widespread unemployment among the unemployed, as the governorate needs strategic projects that can cover not a small number of job opportunities."[/size]
[size=45]Political reactions about investing in the Badia[/size]
[size=45]The State of Law coalition led by Nuri al-Maliki called, in a statement, for the official authorities to stop the project to grant Saudi Arabia lands for investment in the Muthanna desert. Damage to Iraq's strategic reserves of groundwater.[/size]
[size=45]He added, "This decision raises many doubts and questions about the objectives of its issuance at this time, especially since this project was proposed more than once in the time of previous governments, and was rejected for strategic water and security considerations, and because it carries with it a lot of transgression on the rights of Iraqis, and opens The door to a new colonialism under the rubric of investment.”[/size]
[size=45]At the same pace, the leader of the "Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq" movement, Qais al-Khazali, rejected what he described as the attempts of the "Saudi regime" to seize large areas of the lands of the governorates of Anbar, Najaf, Muthanna and Basra, under the pretext of investment, considering that this is "a project that coincides with normalization with Israel."[/size]
[size=45]Khazali also considered, in a statement, that the project contained “extremely dangerous” security threats from a regime that had many precedents in harming Iraq’s security and stability, calling on all academic elites, tribal sheikhs, students and political forces to reject this project, which he described as “malicious.”[/size]
[size=45]The National Approach Bloc issued a 6-point statement in which it said that it was observations about the investment agreement between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. :[/size]
[size=45]The third article of the agreement grants the investors of the contracting party to this agreement a treatment no less favorable than that granted to the investors of another country that is not a party to this agreement. Advanced, for example, check the investors of another country that Saudi Arabia's investors do not achieve, so how are the facilities equal to the difference in the benefit accruing to Iraq from those investments?[/size]
[size=45]It is also granted to the contracting party with Iraq in this agreement the same treatment with what it grants to its national investors and investors of another country by resorting to the judiciary and it is required that the obligations of the parties to this agreement be clearly defined between them without referring them to the contents of other agreements that Iraq may conclude with other countries.[/size]
[size=45]Article 6, the sixth paragraph, also considers the arbitration of disputes to the dispute resolution procedures mentioned in other international investment treaties, even if Iraq is not a party to it, applicable to the disputes of this agreement, while Article 24 of the agreement grants an additional, unjustified privilege, making the application of this agreement retroactive on investments prior to the entry into force of this Agreement.”[/size]
[size=45]The position of the Muthanna clans[/size]
[size=45]Tribal sheikhs and dignitaries in Al-Muthanna issued several vigils and statements calling for a halt to proceeding with investment procedures in the Muthanna desert, while they considered this a Zionist scheme to acquire Iraqi lands, according to their description.[/size]
[size=45]A protest sit-in was organized in the middle of the Muthanna desert, attended by a number of tribal sheikhs and activists, who demanded an immediate halt to investment in the Badia, threatening escalatory measures in this regard.[/size]
[size=45]Parliamentary position[/size]
[size=45]The former MP from Al-Muthanna Governorate, Uday Shaalan Abu Al-Jun, told Al-Mada, we refuse to grant Saudi investments in the Muthanna lands, while the Iraqis are the first to invest in them.[/size]
[size=45]He added, "There are fears that Saudi Arabia will exploit Iraqi lands for political and security purposes," noting that "Saudi Arabia is resorting to using the lands for aggressive purposes," and pointed out that "the Iraqis are the first to invest their lands for agricultural purposes."[/size]
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