USROM's
political, economic and defense news is updated daily, in part. The news
reported describes Washington's policies towards Middle Eastern countries,
and how these countries explain their policies in Washington. Our sources
include the White House, Department of State, Department of Defense, Department
of Commerce, the Congress, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Middle
Eastern ambassadors, Arab-American organizations, think tanks, companies,
the media, and many more.
| United
States |
17
soldiers are dead, 5 injured and 1 unaccounted for following a crash of
two U.S. Blackhawks in Mosul, Iraq
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Algeria
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Ex-Im
Bank gives preliminary approval of $1 billion credit to support U.S. exports
to Sonatrach of Algeria
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Bahrain
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Moody's
upgrades Bahrain's country ceilings for foreign-currency bonds, bank deposits
to Baa1/Prime-2 |
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Egypt
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General
Dynamics wins an $8 million contract to begin work on increasing Egyptian
co-production built M1A1 Abrams tanks to 880
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Iran
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IAEA
gives Iran until 31 October to provide accelerated cooperation, unrestricted
access to corroborate its renunciation of nuclear weapons |
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Iraq
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42%
of recruits in the first battalion of the new Iraqi army resign |
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Israel
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Valero
wins a $7 million contract to provide fuel for the government of Israel
U.S. administration
intends to provide Israel $2.22 billion in foreign military assistance
in FY 2005 |
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Jordan
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Raytheon
wins a $47 million contract to upgrade Jordan's M60 battle tank with Integrated
Fire Control System |
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Kuwait
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Washington
International wins a $26 million contract for design, construction of troop
barracks, multipurpose clusters in Camp Udairi, Kuwait |
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Lebanon
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Lebanon's
deficit drops to 37% of expenditure, balance of payments shifts to a surplus
and financial reserves reach $12 million -- Moody's |
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Libya
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Libya completes
transfer of $2.7 billion for the families of the Pan Am 103 victims --
State |
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Morocco
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Moody's changes
Morocco's outlook to stable from negative |
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Oman
|
Lockheed
wins a $25 million contract modification to provide for the purchase of
12 F-16C/D Block 50 aircraft for Oman |
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Palestine
|
Secretary
Powell remarks "a very good meeting" with Abed Rabbo, Beilin who describe
Geneva Initiative as complementary to the roadmap
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Qatar
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Qatar
Petroleum, ConocoPhillips sign a Statement of Intent to construct a gas-to-liquids
plant in Ras Laffan
Moody's changes to
positive from stable the outlook for the D+ financial strength rating assigned
to Qatar National Bank |
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Saudi
Arabia
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Gulfstream
wins a $75 million contract to provide three G300 aircraft to Saudi National
Air Services |
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Sudan
|
President
Bush Phones Sudanese President al-Bashir, rebel leader Garang |
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Syria
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Operations
that target innocent civilians, international and humanitarian organizations
are terrorist acts, badly affect the very interests of the Iraqi people
-- Spokeswoman |
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Tunisia
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President
Ben Ali will visit Washington on February 17
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Turkey
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Turkey
provides a billion kilowatts of power to Iraq a month in exchange for oil
-- State
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United
Arab
Emirates
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Our
cooperation with the U.S. is very close, it's outstanding, both regarding
Iraq, in Afghanistan -- Minister Shaikh Hamdan ben Zayed
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Yemen
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Yemen
expects to receive a number of U.S. boats offered to support coasts guard
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United
Nations
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UN
Security Council lifts decade-old sanctions imposed against Libya
The "removal" of President
Arafat would be unhelpful, should not be implemented -- UN Security Council
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This
section contains news commentary contributed by Mr. Farid El Khatib of
USROM. |
Copyright1998-2003
USROM. All rights are reserved.
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