Iraq Pivots To Washington for Support as Chinese Money Dries Up

Iraq’s Deputy Petroleum Minister, Hamid Younes al-Zobai, spent last week in Washington spearheading his country’s latest attempts to inveigle more money out of the U.S. The focal point of his efforts was the perennially-used pitch that increased investment from Western energy firms would finally enable Iraq to reduce its level of gas flaring and boost its gas production. Implicit within the same spiel that has been used every year for more than two decades by the various prime ministers and oil ministers of Iraq is the threat that if...