By Yasser Alaskary
September 22, 2003

• Frustrated by the seemingly smooth progress of political development, elements - most likely to be linked to Saddam's secret services - aim to carry the chaos they have inflicted on Iraq's security situation to the political arena by the attempted assassination of one of the Governing Council members, Akila al-Hashimi.
  
  
• This week the focus has been on Iraq's economic recovery and development:
  • The Governing Council-appointed Finance Minister, Kamel al-Kilani, begins work by breaking the state-monopoly imposed by Saddam's Ba'ath Party which had, through years of tyranny, wars and sanctions, devastated Iraq's economy. The economic reforms will privatise all sectors of the economy, except natural resources, aiming to accelerate Iraq's future economic growth.
  • As the World Bank has pointed out, these reforms must be coupled with the development of an efficiently functioning welfare system that can comprehensively provide basic services if the negative effects of privatisation are to be avoided.
  • Bush announces that there is no connection between Saddam Hussein and the September 11th attacks. This protects Iraq from any compensation claims that may have been brought up in the future.
    
    
• Bush is set to address the UN on Tuesday and ask for help in Iraq as the US asks 3 nations, including Turkey, to aid in peacekeeping. This indicates that an agreement may have already been reached after the British, French and German leaders met, despite their inability to hide their differences. However, Turkish troops need to be excluded from Iraq's north, where there are major sensitivities between Iraq's Kurds and Turkey, if friction between locals is to be avoided.

You can find this online at http://www.iprospect.org.uk/na22sep.html