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Iraqi PM Announces Implementation of Projects to Reduce Traffic Congestion in Baghdad

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani in Baghdad, Iraq (Reuters)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani in Baghdad, Iraq (Reuters)
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Iraqi PM Announces Implementation of Projects to Reduce Traffic Congestion in Baghdad

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani in Baghdad, Iraq (Reuters)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani in Baghdad, Iraq (Reuters)

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani announced on Wednesday kickstarting the implementation of three initial projects to alleviate chronic traffic congestion in Baghdad.

Speaking to a group of young engineers, Al-Sudani said: “This government is a service-oriented government and has prioritized services across all sectors, including a package of 19 projects in Baghdad.”

“The launch of the three projects is an opportunity to meet with graduate engineers who have not had the chance to secure employment, with the aim of assisting them in finding alternatives based on private sector opportunities,” explained the premier.

Besides Al-Sudani expressing his support for young Iraqi innovators, he affirmed that the country is on the verge of a reconstruction revolution and project announcements.

During a meeting with government officials late last March, Al-Sudani shed light on the daily suffering of citizens due to traffic congestion at Baghdad’s entrances and the failure of the relevant authorities to appreciate the problem’s true magnitude.

He held responsible authorities accountable for delay in implementing traffic-relief projects.

Al-Sudani emphasized that “the situation at Baghdad’s entrances can no longer be tolerated.”

He reiterated the need for “relevant authorities to prioritize project plans, as there are projects that cannot stand delay or procrastination.”

Baghdad, with a population of almost 9 million, is grappling with severe traffic congestion caused by unregulated car imports and a constant influx of people seeking better job prospects.

The road network in the capital has not been updated, starting from its entrances, and financial and administrative corruption has hampered the allocation of the over trillion dollars of oil sales revenue that could have modernized the city's infrastructure, including tunnel and metro systems.

For his part, the Minister of Construction and Housing Bangen Rekani confirmed that the three projects to alleviate the traffic congestion represent a qualitative leap for the residents of Baghdad.

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A British TV Art Expert Who Sold Works to a Suspected Hezbollah Financier is Sentenced to Prison

FILED - 27 October 2023, Iran, Chomein: A woman sorts flags of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in a factory. Photo: Arne Immanuel Bansch/dpa
FILED - 27 October 2023, Iran, Chomein: A woman sorts flags of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in a factory. Photo: Arne Immanuel Bansch/dpa
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A British TV Art Expert Who Sold Works to a Suspected Hezbollah Financier is Sentenced to Prison

FILED - 27 October 2023, Iran, Chomein: A woman sorts flags of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in a factory. Photo: Arne Immanuel Bansch/dpa
FILED - 27 October 2023, Iran, Chomein: A woman sorts flags of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in a factory. Photo: Arne Immanuel Bansch/dpa

An art expert who appeared on the BBC's Bargain Hunt show was sentenced Friday to two and a half years in prison for failing to report his sale of pricey works to a suspected financier of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group.
At a previous hearing, Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, had pleaded guilty to eight offenses under the Terrorism Act 2000. The art sales for about 140,000 pounds ($185,000) to Nazem Ahmad, a diamond and art dealer sanctioned by the UK and US as a Hezbollah financier, took place between October 2020 and December 2021. The sanctions were designed to prevent anyone in the UK or US from trading with Ahmad or his businesses, The Associated Press said.
Ojiri, who also appeared on the BBC’s Antiques Road Trip, faced a possible sentence of five years in prison in the hearing at London’s Central Criminal Court, which is better known as the Old Bailey.
In addition to the prison term, Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said Ojiri faces an additional year on license — a period of time after a prison sentence ends when an offender must stay out of trouble or risk going back to prison.
She told Ojiri he had been involved in a commercial relationship “for prestige and profit” and that until his involvement with Ahmad, he was “someone to be admired.”
“You knew about Ahmad’s suspected involvement in financing terrorism and the way the art market can be exploited by someone like him," she said. "This is the nadir — there is one direction your life can go and I am confident that you will not be in front of the courts again.”
The Met’s investigation into Ojiri was carried out alongside Homeland Security in the US, which is conducting a wider investigation into alleged money laundering by Ahmad using shell companies.
“This prosecution, using specific Terrorism Act legislation, is the first of its kind and should act as a warning to all art dealers that we can, and will, pursue those who knowingly do business with people identified as funders of terrorist groups,” said Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command.
Ahmad was sanctioned in 2019 by the US Treasury, which said he was a prominent Lebanon-based money launderer involved in smuggling blood diamonds, which are mined in conflict zones and sold to finance violence.
Two years ago, the UK Treasury froze Ahmad’s assets because he financed Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite militant organization that has been designated an international terrorist group.
Following Ojiri's arrest in April 2023, the Met obtained a warrant to seize a number of artworks, including a Picasso and Andy Warhol paintings, belonging to Ahmad and held in two warehouses in the UK The collection, valued at almost 1 million pounds, is due to be sold with the funds to be reinvested back into the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Home Office.