Arrest warrant for Iraq oil strikers

BAGHDAD, June 6 (UPI) -- Arrest warrants have been issued for Iraqi oil workers, union leaders say, as they end the third day of a strike that has cut production.

According to a statement released by numerous international solidarity groups working with the oil workers in and around Basra, in southern Iraq, the workers were charged with "sabotaging the economy" and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Tuesday he'd meet "with an iron fist" those who threaten Iraq's oil production.

Oil is 70 percent of Iraq's gross domestic product and the 1.6 million barrels per day of oil sales on the international market bring in more than 93 percent of the federal budget's funds.

Top political officials are still negotiating an oil law that would govern the third-largest reserves in the world -- 115 billion barrels -- but can't agree on how to redistribute the oil revenues, whether the regions or central government will have more power and how far to open the oil to foreign investors.

The workers, in particular, having operated the sector since the 1920s, warn against too much foreign access to the oil and called any foreign ownership "a red line" not to cross.

"The government is intimidating the union but we are determined to gain our legitimate rights," said Hassan Jumaa Awad, leader of the Iraq Federation of Oil Unions. Awad is one of the leaders Maliki wants arrested, but vows the strike will continue.

"The strike entered its third day today and is in its 'second phase,'which now includes the closure of the main distribution pipelines, including supplies to Baghdad," according to a release by Naftana, a solidarity group in Britain. "'Phase one' closed some of the smaller distribution pipelines. Phases one and two did not include production and exports."

Most of Iraq's vast oil reserves are not in production, as only 2 million bpd are pumped now, far below pre-war levels, a result of the war and Saddam Hussein's mismanagement of the oil sector.