BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Britain agreed on Sunday to arrange 10 billion pounds in loans to finance infrastructure projects in Iraq over a 10 year period, a program that would only benefit British companies, an Iraqi minister said in Baghdad. "This loan is exclusively allocated to British companies," Iraqi Acting Finance Minister Abdul Razzak al-Essa told a news conference at the signing ceremony. Britain is a main partner in the U.S.-led coalition helping Iraq defeat Islamic State, the hardline Sunni group that overran about a third of the country in 2014. "For the United Kingdom this is a further evidence of the bilateral support that we are giving and continue to give to Iraq, to help Iraq move forward to recover from the ravages of Daesh (Islamic State)," British ambassador Frank Baker said. The fall in oil prices coincided with the launch of Islamic State's offensive across Iraq which set off a new wave of sectarian violence, displacing more than three million people.

Source: The Star March 05, 2017 08:22 UTC