Kadhim Shamkhi Amer, Director of the Iraqi Ministry of Labor's National Center, said the Iraqi government has no intention to escape paying dues of Egyptians. In a phone call with Al-Masry Al-Youm yesterday, the Iraqi official said Iraq recognizes these dues and respects the Egyptians' right to get them.
He added that the Iraqi government is fully ready to reschedule the values of these remittances, some 637,000 at a value of $462 million (LE 2.5 billion). Iraqi Minister of Labor Mohamed Mahmoud Jawad Al-Sheikh referred the issue to the Iraqi Cabinet and there will be negotiations between the Egyptian Minister of Finance and his Iraqi counterpart Baqir Jabr al-Zubeidi to put frameworks for scheduling these dues. An Iraqi delegation headed by the Minister of Labor will visit Cairo soon to attend a meeting of the Arab Labor Organization.
Negotiations are underway between the Egyptian and Iraqi governments and a number of Arab countries, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, to participate in the reconstruction of Iraq, the Iraqi minister said.
The Egyptian labor will be at the forefront of the employment Iraq is trying to use, but the current security situation prevents that, as he put it.
