Iraq’s new egalitarian oil law offers hope for democracy, prosperity and peace

THE recent hydrocarbon law, approved after much wrangling by Iraq’s Council of Ministers, deserves a great deal more praise than it has received.

For one thing, it abolishes the economic rationale for dictatorship in Iraq. For another, it was arrived at by a process of parley and bargain that, while still in its infancy, demonstrates the possibility of a co-operative future. For another, it shames the oil policy of Iraq’s neighbours and reinforces the idea that a democracy in Baghdad could still teach a few regional lessons.

To illustrate my point by contrast: can you easily imagine the Saudi Government allocating oil revenues so as to give a fair share to the ground-down and despised Shi’ite workers who toil, for the most part, in the oilfields of the western region of the country?