U.S. State Department Plans to Dramatically Increase the Numbers of Staff in Iraq

February 9, 2010 · Posted in NEWS
Baghdad – Abdel Ali Salman
News magazine «Foreign Policy», published in Washington, said the Foreign Ministry plans to add hundreds of new staff to the crew diplomatic developments in Iraq, in order to strengthen its presence outside Baghdad while U.S. troops prepare to leave next year.

The magazine said in a report published yesterday on its website, the ministry has asked financial increase of about two billion dollars for fiscal year 2010 for use in Iraq, indicating that most assignments will be used to open consulates and three permanent «regional development teams of temporary».

The report adds that this funding will enable the recruitment of 129 staff members for a total of 664 employees in Iraq with the end of the fiscal year.

It will be one of the consulates in Basra in what will be the other in northern Iraq. The regional development teams will be working on «demarcation lines» between Kurds and Arabs near Kirkuk, Nineveh and Diyala.

The magazine said that the amount of $ 735 million of additional funds had been listed as dedicated to the needs of security for the protection of civilians in the new offices. Have been described request as «very urgent to calm the sectarian conflicts – ethnic and political strategic opportunities». Have been baffled by some to be the request relates to assignments of additional financial and not through the allocation of the budget of the U.S. State Department in 2011. He answered Jacques Le Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to this question by saying «the important point in this regard is the timing, there is a plan to transfer all responsibilities from the army to civilian control through a fixed timetable and to be able to make this transition work smoothly, there is a good amount of work that must be done in advance ».

He said there is more demand in the budget for 2011 to $ 2.6 billion for Iraq and will be allocated the sum of the needs of long-term.

Experts say that the attention of the U.S. long-standing ethnic tensions in Iraq «will be strong over the next few months, while continuing fragile reconciliation process there».

The sheikh of U.S. diplomacy and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, published last Wednesday, an article in The Washington Post, which he sharply criticized the U.S. policy toward Iraq and considered «a retreat from commitments on a very important country». Kissinger warned that any downturn would mean the survival of U.S. there is little overlap between Iraq and Iran «where this would leave the region threatened to reignite».

In the context of related research Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi with U.S. Secretary of State the Iraqi political scene and the readiness of the armed forces and the relationship with neighboring countries, according to a statement by his office.

In a statement posted on the official website of Hashemi’s Vice President of the Republic, “he met during a visit by now to Washington and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss the priorities that should be adopted between Iraq and the United States to activate the Strategic Framework Agreement in particular and Iraq in a dire need for services, the United States in various fields. ”

The statement said that the meeting “also discussed the political scene in Iraq and other issues related to readiness of the armed forces in addition to file-Iraqi relations with neighboring countries and the GCC.” According to the statement also said that al-Hashemi “met in Washington and Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa to discuss bilateral relations between Iraq and Bahrain and ways of developing and upgrading them to serve the interest of the two brotherly countries.”
The statement quoted Foreign Minister Al-Khalifa, “the desire of the Kingdom of Bahrain to develop prospects for cooperation with Iraq in various fields and its commitment to and understanding of the need to restore Iraq to its relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council and its insistence that Bahrain will continue its efforts in this area to convince the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council re-diplomatic representation in Iraq and the revitalization of bilateral relations in various areas as a prelude to the restoration of Iraq’s role in the organizations, the Gulf States did not participate in since 1990 until now.

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