Iraq: Amer Rasheed is an acting oil minister

The Iraqi TV has announced that the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein yesterday appointed Amer Rasheed as an acting minister of oil, just two months after his resignation from his post as a minister of oil.

The Iraqi TV said that Saddam Hussein issued a decree according to which he "appoints Amer Rasheed as an acting oil minister." Rasheed was exempted from his post at the ministry of oil on January 7th at a Presidential decree and the senior official at the ruling Baath party Abdul Azeem Najm had then the post of the acting oil minister.

Certain oil experts considered the resignation of al-Rasheed as sort of punishment aimed at easing down conditions with Moscow after Baghdad abrogated a contract at several billion dollars with the Russian oil company "look oil." On January 28th al-Rasheed appeared in a press conference held in Baghdad as a presidential advisor on armament issue, and thereby he refuted speculations on his ultimate alienation from governmental posts.

Rasheed works in the "military manufacturing commission." He is widely acquainted with all issues relating to the work of the UN inspectors.