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The cancellation of Serbia's debt on Iraq
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Translated by IRAQdirectory.com - [1/16/2008]
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The Ministry of Finance announced that Serbia cancelled the debt of Iraq, which amounts to $2.48 billion.
A statement by the Ministry of Finance confirmed that canceling the debt of Serbia has increased the size of the debt cancelled to $92.5 billion out of the total $140 billion which was the result of the wrong financial policies and senseless wars perpetrated by the deposed dictator.
Minister of Finance, Baqir Jabr Al-Zubaidi, said, "Canceling the debt of Serbia was the result of two-month negotiations with the Serbian side; 90% of the debt was canceled according to the conditions of the agreement signed with the Paris Club. It is important to continue these efforts to reach a healthy economy, free from all the heavy legacy left by the former regime and to be able to find a true beginning to promote economic reality in Iraq."
Iraq had signed last December an agreement with Serbia to purchase weapons and military equipments to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense worth $230 million; however, the types of weapons were not revealed, but a Serbian military expert said they include assault rifles of Serbian industry, automatic weapons, anti-tank weapons and various types of ammunition and explosives.
Iraqi Defense Minister, Abdul Qadir Al-Obaidi, had visited Belgrade last September, and then he made another one last November to discuss improving military relations between the two countries. The visit was the first of its kind for a military official at such a high level since the fall of Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic, who both were on a good relationship with each other.
It should be noted that Yugoslav construction companies had built most of the military infrastructure in Iraq, such as military bases and command headquarters during the seventies and eighties of the last century.
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