Iraq turns to Iran for Infrastructure

The recent bevy of deals between Iraq and Iran have one common theme:
they provide Iraq with the critical infrastructure they need to revive
their economy. Deals for oil processing, petrol (which Iraq needs to
import), electricity (which is below pre-war levels and half pre gulf
war 1 levels), a deep water port, food, the list goes on.

Juan Cole stumbles into this with
his article
in Slate today:

It
was not only history that brought Jaafari to the foothills of the
Alborz mountains. The Iraqi prime minister was attempting to break out
of the box into which his government has been stuffed by the Sunni Arab
guerrilla movement. Jaafari's government does not control the
center-north or west of the country and cannot pump much petroleum from
Kirkuk because of oil sabotage. Trucking to Jordan is often difficult.
The Jaafari government depends heavily on the Rumaila oil field in the
south, but lacks refining capability. Iraq lacks a deep water port on
the Gulf and needs to replace inland “ports” like Amman because of poor
security. An initiative toward the east could resolve many of these
problems, strengthening the Shiites against the Sunni guerrillas
economically and militarily and so saving the new government.

At this juncture, even the political victory sought in this war has
been undermined by global guerrillas and their new methods of system
disruption.   [John Robb's Weblog]