Iraq: staffer shot, oil deal continues
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In February Iraq’s cabinet approved the IMF supported draft oil law (see Update 54) which could give foreign companies exclusive and long term rights over Iraqi oil. Iraqi parliament is now considering the bill. An industrial lobby, the International Tax and Investment Centre has since scheduled a meeting to take place in May between the IMF, the Iraqi government and oil companies. Meanwhile a World Bank staffer was shot in the shoulder at a security check point in Baghdad in February. The news was apparently suppressed for several days in an effort by the Bank to quell concerns about president Wolfowitz’s recent push to re-open an office there.
