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| December 4, 2003 |
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| Iraq Oil Fund Board To Meet |
WASHINGTON - December 4, 2003. The supervisory board set up by the UN Security Council to monitor US
management of Iraq's oil revenues will hold its first meeting [at the
United Nations in New York] on Friday, reports Agence France Presse.
The board, authorized by the council in May, includes representatives from
the United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF and the Arab Fund for Social
and Economic Development. The International Advisory and Monitoring Board(IAMB), as it is known, will audit the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI),
which is charged with disbursing the revenues from Iraqi oil sales.
According to its council mandate, the IAMB will ensure that the DFI "shall
be used in a transparent manner to meet the humanitarian needs of the
Iraqi people" and help pay for reconstruction and other projects. The Arab Fund has not yet named its representative to the IAMB but the others were announced on Wednesday. They are UN assistant secretary general
Jean-Pierre Halbwachs, World Bank vice president and controller Fayezul
Choudhury and Bert Keuppens, senior advisor from the finance department at
the IMF.
Dow Jones notes that UN diplomats said the agreement on the board should
increase international confidence in the Development Fund, which has been
seeking contributions. The UN and the World Bank have also set up a
separate trust fund for Iraq's reconstruction aimed at attracting
countries unwilling to donate to the Development Fund.
Meanwhile, Kyodo News reports that the government of Japan is considering
sending special envoys to the United Nations or the countries neighboring
Iraq to promote Japan's commitment to help reconstruct the war-torn
country, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda indicated Thursday. The
names of two former foreign ministers, Taro Nakayama and Masahiko Komura,
have been floated as candidates for the positions, the top government
spokesman told a news conference. "We are considering it in various ways"
as part of many other efforts to help rebuild Iraq with the international
community, Fukuda said.
In a commentary in The New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman writes that the
first post-Saddam democratic government that the US gives birth to in Iraq
may be called the Islamic Republic of Iraq - and that's not necessarily a
bad thing. If things go reasonably well, the result will be an initial
Iraqi government that is more religious than Turkey but more democratic
than Iran. Not bad. We must not try to abort this unfolding discussion
among Iraqis, Friedman writes. In fact, we should be proud of it. We are
fostering a much-needed free political dialogue in the heart of the Arab
world.
Source: The World Bank
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