Gagrule.net

Gagrule.net News, Views, Interviews worldwide

Tanker with piped Iraqi Kurdish oil U-turns away from U.S.

By

By Julia Payne – Reuters

LONDON,— A crude oil tanker at the center of a dispute between Iraqi Kurdistan and Baghdad has reversed course from its route state8040towards the United States, ship-tracking data showed on Friday, indicating that the shipper may not have a buyer.

The United Leadership oil tanker has become a symbol of a wider conflict between Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan over oil sales from the autonomous northern enclave, as it contains the first crude to come out of the region’s newly built pipeline into Turkey.

Since loading at the Turkish port of Ceyhan last week, the United Leadership set course for the U.S. Gulf Coast, according to ship-tracking and market sources.

The U.S. State Department said that it did not condone oil sales bypassing Baghdad, and that any buyers could risk a legal suit with the central government.

“We do not support the export or sale of oil absent the appropriate approval of the federal Iraqi government,” a U.S. State Department official said.

Despite its position, the U.S. has already imported small quantities of Kurdish oil, though not from the pipeline.

The Kurdish government insisted the oil is going to Europe, when asked about its U.S. destination and that it would be the “first of many such sales”.

“One million barrels was sold by auction to both Germany and Italy. No shipment was sent to the United States,” Moyad Talab, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Alliance to the central government, told Reuters.

HOMELESS

But for the moment, the oil appears to be homeless.

The tanker reversed course south of Portugal with a new destination, Gibraltar for orders, Reuters AIS Live ship tracking showed, suggesting that the lifter of the oil has still not found a place to put it.

Until last week, Kurdish oil exports were constrained to a small volume shipped by truck to two Turkish ports on the Mediterranean. Iraq’s state marketer made threats of legal action but did not follow through.

But the start of exports out of the Kurdistan’s pipeline means much more significant revenues for the region. Iraq swiftly announced that it filed an arbitration case against Turkey withwww.Ekurd.net the International Chamber of Commerce.

It also asked its customers to confirm they would never buy exported Kurdish oil, which they have done, an industry source with knowledge of the matter said.

In an effort to lock down the whole process of loading a tanker, Iraq’s state marketer SOMO told inspections company, Netherlands-based Saybolt, to cease analyzing Kurdish crude, industry sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Saybolt management could not immediately be reached for comment.

Iraq and Kurdistan were trying to reach a political agreement over the oil sales, but five months after the pipeline started up there had still been no final decision, prompting the Kurdish Regional Government to go it alone.

“There is no going back,” KRG’s Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said this week in parliament. “If we cannot reach a shared understanding, we have other options and we cannot wait forever. Why did we begin selling oil? In order to make Baghdad realize that we can do it.”

By Julia Payne – Reuters

Iraqis’ epidemic of mental illness

By

Omar al-Jaffal
Contributor, Iraq Pulse

According to statistics from Doctors Without Borders and the World Health Organization, Iraq has become home to psychological illnesses that are getting worse due to the The Mentally Ill In Iraq Sufferescalation of unresolved security and political issues. However, there are other reasons behind the spread of these illnesses in Iraq, including society itself.

Statistics released by Doctors Without Borders in 2006 showed 18.6% of Iraqis afflicted by psychological illnesses. Iraqi culture, however, perceives anyone who seeks psychological help as “crazy,” which increases the number of cases and renders the treatment difficult.

Al-Rashad Hospital, on the outskirts of Baghdad, houses 1,300 patients suffering from different types of psychological illnesses, mainly schizophrenia and depression. The hospital is dealing with a lack of medical cadres, with only 11 doctors, as noted by the media manager of Baghdad’s Rusafa Health Department, Qassem Abdel Hadi Dayekh.

“The lack of cadres comes as a result of the low number of students enrolling in psychiatric studies in Iraq,” Dayekh told Al-Monitor.

He said, “Iraqi society perceives those who seek psychiatric help as crazy, which renders the field of psychiatry as a luxury. Patients do not frequent psychiatric clinics, yielding them non-lucrative.”

Despite the growing numbers of psychological illnesses in Iraq, there are only three psychiatric hospitals, Al-Rashad and Ibn Rushd in Baghdad, and Suz Hospital in Sulaimaniyah, according to Dayekh.

Dayekh questioned the statistics of international organizations indicating the worsening psychological situation of Iraqi citizens. He said, “International organizations may be seeing some Iraqi customs, traditions and behaviors as a mental illness. This might be wrong.” He pointed to another social imbalance: “The parents of some hospitalized patients recovering from seizures would rather leave them in the hospital than face society’s perception toward these patients. They then become a burden on the hospital, and they occupy hospital beds that are much needed by others in the community.” Although Samer Abdul Ali, a taxi driver, believes that all Iraqis are suffering from mental illnesses, he refuses to go to a psychologist as he thinks that all doctors are also ill and in need of treatment.

Samer, honking the horn of his car and swearing at other drivers passing by, told Al-Monitor, “Psychological illnesses will end when the security situation stabilizes. We have become accustomed to our diseases.” Moaid al-Khafaji, a third-year medical student, told Al-Monitor, “Some medical specializations such as dermatology, radiology or otolaryngology are more popular than psychology, as they require less close connections with patients and provide more facilities compared with psychology, in addition to the higher salaries these doctors can make.”

However, Khafaji, who has not yet decided his field of specialization, said, “Psychology has become an ideal choice among medical students, and they wish to specialize in it, though timidly. …During my brief study of psychology, I noticed an intentional marginalization of this specialization and a minimization of its importance. This is evidenced by the number of theoretical courses allocated to this material, and the scheduling of these courses at the end of the daily lectures.”

Omar al-Jaffal
Contributor, Iraq Pulse

Omar al-Jaffal is an Iraqi writer and poet. He is an editor of Bayt and Nathr, two intellectual magazines that are published in Iraq. He is also the chief editor of Al-Aalam al-Jadid, an electronic newspaper.