Now, Iraqis seek control of oil

Following Monday’s car bomb assassination of the head of their Governing Council, the Iraqis who will be running the country after the handover of power on June 30 are increasingly dismayed not only at the US failure to provide security but also at limits on their new sovereignty.

‘‘Iraq must have a say in the next UN resolution,’’ Bayati said. ‘‘We will negotiate on the basis that Iraq must be fully in charge of its resource wealth, and the five per cent of oil revenues we pay (in war reparations) must be reduced further.’’ Washington wants an international board that monitors Iraq’s oil accounts to remain in place after the June 30 handover.

Iraq also still owes some $280 billion in reparations for Saddam’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, a vast sum compared to the $9 billion its ravaged oil industry earned since the US invasion.

Planning Minister Mehdi Al-Hafedh, a candidate for PM, said: ‘‘It is unjust for Iraq to pay for the crimes of Saddam with its future.’’ Debate over a new resolution to give a UN seal of approval to the handover plan and to the new Iraqi administration has given critics of the US invasion a chance to criticise Washington as half-hearted on the transfer.

There were fresh clashes in southern Iraq between US troops and militia loyal to Shi’ite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr. In Karbala, they fought running battles around dawn that killed at least eight Iraqis and wounded 13. — (Reuters)