Probe International

(May 27, 2003) The U.S. is expected to urge Iraq’s creditors to consider debt relief at the G-8 summit. U.S. officials charged with assessing Iraq’s debt position are putting accuracy ahead of speed: "It doesn’t matter when it is done, it matters how it is done."

(May 27, 2003) Members of the Group of Eight (G-8) industrial democracies have reached preliminary agreement to grant a moratorium on Iraq’s foreign debt payments through 2004, ITAR-TASS reported on May 19, citing french sources.

(May 26, 2003) "Michael Kremer and Seema Jayachandran misread history when they argue that ‘the world needs a system to determine which loans should be considered legitimate’. The world already has such a system; the Paris Club process.", says Lex Rieffel.

(May 24, 2003) Peter McPherson, assigned by the US Treasury to rebuild Iraq’s financial sector, also lamented the country’s "very substantial" need for debt relief. "The debt as it stands would be crushing to service," he said.

(May 23, 2003) Russia dropped its opposition to a UN resolution lifting sanctions on Iraq once it believed its Soviet-era debt and massive oil contracts in the country would be respected, the Russian press said Friday, May 23.

(May 23, 2003) A new Iraqi government would have the sovereign authority to make negotiations on debt relief says the State Department’s Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs, Kim Holmes.

(May 23, 2003) The oil industry should generate $20 bn next year. That will ease the suffering, though it’s nowhere near enough to finance a $20 bn a year rebuilding effort, plus the servicing of a $400 bn debt. Aid and debt relief will be needed.

(May 23, 2003) Papers across Europe view the UN resolution on post-conflict Iraq as a sign of an outbreak of resigned pragmatism at the Security Council.

(May 22, 2003) Carlo Invernizzi introduces ‘Jubilee Iraq’ – a non-governmental organisation campaigning for the cancellation of Iraq’s debt that has called on creditors to demonstrate the legitimacy of their liabilities or otherwise drop their claims.

(May 22, 2003) The resolution envisages a rescheduling of Iraq’s debt through the Paris Club and establishes a moratorium on the debt by declaring Iraq’s oil revenues immune from legal proceedings until December 31, 2007.