Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh cautioned Sunday that failure to stabilize and rebuild Iraq could trigger a crisis across the broader Middle East, calling on donor nations, the UN, and the EU to step up engagement. The warning came at a one-day preparatory conference in Abu Dhabi, convened at Baghdad's initiative, to lay groundwork for a formal partnership compact between Iraq and the international community.
Saleh said Iraq requires broad consensus to overcome the institutional damage left by decades of authoritarian rule. Representatives from France, Japan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the United States attended. Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani noted that petroleum revenues were projected at 25 to 30 billion dollars this year, with current output at 2.5 million barrels daily. Further discussions on the compact are scheduled for New York and Singapore on 18 September, with a Baghdad session planned for early October.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in September 2006, in its own words.