[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 28191]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       IRAQI CONTRACTS WITH IRAN AND CHINA CONCERN UNITED STATES

  (Mr. ENGEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, a very disturbing report has come out that 
Iraq has agreed to award $1.1 billion in contracts to Iranian and 
Chinese companies to build a pair of enormous power plants. That is 
what the Iraqi Minister of Electricity said on Tuesday. Word of the 
project prompted serious concerns among American military officials who 
fear that Iranian commercial investments can mask military activities 
at a time of our heightened tension with Iran.
  Mr. Speaker, at a time when young Americans are dying in Iraq and 
when the U.S. is spending billions of dollars in Iraq, this makes 
absolutely no sense at all. The Iraqi Electricity Minister said that 
the Iranian project would be built in Sadr City, a Shiite enclave in 
Baghdad that is controlled by followers of the anti-American cleric 
Moqtada al-Sadr. He added that Iran had also agreed to provide cheap 
electricity from its own grid to southern Iraq and to build a large 
power plant, essentially free of charge, in an area between two Shiite 
holy cities.
  The expansion of ties between Iraq and Iran comes as the U.S. and 
Iran clash on nuclear issues and about what American officials had 
repeatedly said was Iranian support for armed groups. This is an 
outrage and should not stand.

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