Iraq, reversing course, to keep U.N. oil watchdog

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) –
Iraq has decided to keep alive for another year a U.N. watchdog to monitor the use of its oil wealth, reversing course just weeks after announcing the agency would be abolished, officials said on Wednesday.

The decision to resuscitate the International Advisory and Monitoring Board was made at the request of governments donating money to Iraqi reconstruction, said Baghdad’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Feisal Amin al-Istrabadi.

“I am very well aware an agreement is in place to replace it. But the IAMB has certainly played a useful role up until now, and some of the donor countries think it could still play a useful role,” al-Istrabadi told Reuters.

Iraqi officials had informed the IAMB just three weeks ago that it would be abolished as of the end of this year and replaced with an Iraqi monitoring body to be called the Committee of Financial Experts.

Reuters