RIYADH, 14 December 2003 — Four Saudi firms are among a group of international companies which won construction contracts in Iraq, it has been revealed. The participating Saudi firms are: Al-Gosaibi Services, National Contracting, Riyadh Geotechnique and Tamimi Global Company. The group of companies published by the US Defense and State Departments also included firms from Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan in addition to American, British, Swiss, Australian and Cypriot ones.
The publication of the list of company names comes after the Bush administration drew international criticism for banning opponents of the Iraq war from US-funded reconstruction contracts. France, Germany and Russia oppose the decision and called it “unacceptable.”
Brad Sester, an economist and former Treasury Department official said the US decision came at the wrong time. “It represents the administration’s wrong diplomacy,” he told Arab News by phone. The policy has cast a shadow over next week’s trip to Europe by James Baker, whom US President George W. Bush has given the chore of convincing even opponents of the US-led March invasion to help reduce Iraq’s crippling debt burden.
“I don’t think the US position is sustainable. It goes against international rules,” Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson has said.
Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds added: “It is completely unacceptable that the United States limits this to certain countries and completely shuts out others from the possibility of competing in a normal way for the contracts.”
However, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, a staunch US ally which stands to benefit from Iraqi contracts, defended Bush’s decision. “It’s for the Americans to decide how they spend their money. This is American money,” Blair told reporters.
The German government said on Friday it was optimistic the row could be resolved. “No decisions have been made yet and we should wait to see what the results of the meetings with James Baker,” said government spokesman Thomas Steg, referring to the former secretary of state’s visit to Europe next week.
Sester said the Bush administration’s decision was making things difficult for the French, Germans and others to get involved in Iraq politically and financially. “This pushes back relations instead of pushing them forward,” he added.
In a related development, a study has shown that most reconstruction contracts, worth billions of dollars, in both Afghanistan and Iraq have been awarded to American companies which supported Bush’s presidential campaign in 2000.