162: Shocking the world: Will Longguo have oil fields in the Middle East?

"What?"

Saddam and the Iraqi Ministry of Defense want to build a million-strong army using purely Dragon Country equipment?

Upon hearing Saddam's plan and intent for cooperation, all members of the Dragon Country delegation at the meeting table were shocked!

Even Peng Lin, who was standing by, was incredibly stunned by Saddam's idea!

With the Beidou Satellite Positioning System, Dragon Country's light combined arms brigades and heavy combined arms brigades were almost a dimension-reducing strike in the Middle East!

But Saddam was still not satisfied with the current size of the army and wanted to expand it to a million?

Did he really want to sweep across the entire Middle East?

Peng Lin knew that besides initiating the Iran-Iraq War, Saddam later fought two large-scale wars of a million-troop level with Pretty Country: the Gulf War and the Iraq War!

Therefore, he was momentarily undecided about Saddam's strategic ambition!

"Except for Iran and Israel, our Iraqi Defense Forces will not launch any war against any Arab brotherly country in the Middle East!"

"Even if Iran wants to negotiate now and agrees to return sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab and relevant territories, we are willing to engage in armistice talks!"

"The reason our Iraqi Defense Forces want to expand our troops on a large scale is to ensure the Arab world has a strong, independent armed force to defend the interests of our Middle Eastern countries!"

"Even the Mammoth Bear Empire and Pretty Country, two superpowers, cannot arbitrarily start wars in our Arab world!"

Saddam looked at Peng Lin with his amber eyes and said.

At this moment, Peng Lin finally understood the other party's strategic intent!

This time, engaging with Iran, a Shia country, and achieving a great victory, clearly gave Saddam immense strategic confidence!

And it greatly increased his prestige among the Sunni Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE!

Therefore, Saddam wanted to seize this opportunity to build a powerful million-strong Dragon-equipped army, striving to become the leader of all Sunni nations!

Thereby fulfilling his grand ambition of uniting the entire Arab world!

And Peng Lin knew that Iran, after this major defeat, would certainly not let the matter rest.

Because war would only make the newly revolutionary Iranian regime more stable and united.

Even if it was to consolidate its power by using the excuse of a common enemy, Iran could not negotiate peace.

It would even more resolutely and completely align with the Mammoth Bear Empire, and then, with the aid of the superpower, continue the war with Iraq.

As a dominant figure in the Middle East, Saddam could not fail to see this point.

This was probably also the reason why he insisted on abandoning Soviet-era equipment and expanding his army with Dragon Country equipment!

"No problem!"

"Dragon Country Military Industry is willing to continue deepening cooperation with the Iraqi Ministry of Defense!"

Peng Lin smiled and nodded, agreeing after a brief consideration.

A 20 billion USD arms deal, even larger than the total value of military trade orders signed by the Dragon Country military at the Paris Air Show, naturally gave Peng Lin no reason to refuse.

If the Iraqi Defense Forces' million-strong army chose to fully equip itself with Dragon Country's weaponry, then the subsequent technical upgrades and replacements for these million troops' weapons and equipment would be enough to make Dragon Country's military industry earn a fortune every year!

Furthermore, this would mean that Iraq would completely align with Dragon Country in its international stance from now on!

Even without any written alliance agreement between the two sides, it would absolutely be an unbreakable tacit alliance!

Because for countries, shared interests can sometimes be much more reliable than alliance agreements!

And when Saddam saw Peng Lin nod in agreement, the tension on his face visibly relaxed.

Iraq seemed to have achieved a great victory in the Iran-Iraq conflict, but beneath the surface, strong undercurrents were at play!

The Middle East, which holds the global energy lifeline, has always been a battleground for superpowers!

The Iranian Islamic revolutionary forces overthrew the fully pro-Western Pahlavi dynasty, which would inevitably bring them closer to the Mammoth Bear Empire, possibly even forming an alliance.

And then export the revolution to surrounding Sunni countries!

However, Iraq had no one behind it!

Therefore, at this critical moment of international geopolitical maneuvering, Saddam had to secure the support of a world superpower!

Logically, with Iran currently under comprehensive sanctions from Pretty Country, Iraq taking the opportunity to align with Pretty Country and enlist White House support would be the best option.

But Saddam understood that Pretty Country would never allow the Middle East to become a unified bloc, no matter the circumstances!

Because if that happened, Pretty Country would no longer be able to control international oil prices!

This could be seen from the White House's unconditional support for Israel, a 'nail' placed in the Middle East!

Therefore, in this situation, Saddam decided not to seek the support of a superpower, but instead to cooperate with the highly promising Dragon Country!

"Chief Designer Peng, let's immediately begin discussions for the next phase of our cooperation plan."

"Regarding the payment for the 20 billion USD arms order, our Iraqi government has two cooperation options!"

"The first is to make installment payments for this arms trade over a period of five years!"

"As for the second, it's a bit more complex!"

"We hope that after the Iraqi government pays the 20 billion USD order fee to Dragon Country, Dragon Country will then invest this capital back into Iraq to jointly establish an oil exploration company with our government, to develop oil fields within our country!"

"Both sides will hold 50% of the shares, the Iraqi government will not collect any taxes, and profits will be shared!"

Saddam looked at Peng Lin and said.

"Jointly establish an oil field development company and share profits?"

Peng Lin also looked at Saddam, surprised that the other party would propose such a cooperation suggestion!

It must be said that Iraq and Saddam were very sincere in their cooperation; not only did they allow the company jointly established by Dragon Country and the Iraqi government to develop oil fields anywhere within its territory, but they also directly offered a 50% profit share!

This approach of attracting foreign investment and technology to develop domestic oil fields is actually very common in the Middle East.

Many developed countries, such as Pretty Country, the Mammoth Bear Empire, and various Western nations, have invested in and developed oil fields in Middle Eastern countries.

However, depending on the difficulty of oil field development, host countries generally levy high tax rates of over 50% on these jointly established development companies.

After deducting the taxes, both parties then divide the profits according to the agreement.

In this way, international oil development companies generally only receive between 15% and 25% of the profits.

But even so, this is still an unimaginable fortune!

After all, oil development is arguably the only project globally that is more profitable than arms trade!

Except for Pretty Country, the Mammoth Bear Empire, and a few Western powers, ordinary countries simply do not have the qualification to develop oil fields in other countries!

So when Saddam proposed this cooperation method, all the Dragon Country representatives at the meeting table were shocked!

Dragon Country!

Is it also going to have oil fields in the Middle East?

If this news gets out, it will probably shake the entire world!