Baghdad to get first new post-Saddam luxury hotel

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq said on Thursday it has cleared a proposal to build a new five-star hotel in Baghdad's Green Zone at a cost of 100 million dollars, the first since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The 300-room luxury hotel will be built near Saddam's former Adnan Palace in the heavily fortified zone, which houses the government headquarters and foreign missions, said a statement from government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh.

It said Summit Global Group, which is made up of American, Iraqi and international investors, would finance the construction.

"New jobs for Iraqis will be created, both in the construction of the hotel and in its management and operation," the statement said.

It said a groundbreaking ceremony will be held on July 19 but it did not say when construction would be completed.

Since the fall of Saddam's regime following the US-led invasion of March 2003, Iraq has been rocked by brutal insurgency and sectarian conflict which virtually halted any kind of new construction projects, especially in Baghdad.

But since the middle of last year violence has been ebbing which has raised hopes that the government would push ahead with building new infrastructure projects.

"The hotel will attract Iraqi, regional and international visitors to its shopping, meeting places, and exhibit spaces and will be a magnet for Iraqi conferences and investors," the Iraqi statement said.

The hotel will be built on land owned by the finance ministry in the Green Zone -- where visitors have to pass through several army checkpoints -- and leased to Summit Global Group.

"An international brand for the hotel is being selected," the statement added.