13 January 2011
US Vice President Biden flies into Iraq
BAGHDAD - US Vice President Joe Biden flew into Iraq on Thursday for his first visit to the country since Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was reappointed for a second term.
Biden, picked by President Barack Obama as his pointman for Iraq, was expected to meet with Iraqi officials for talks prior to the full withdrawal at the end of the year of the US military, which ousted Saddam Hussein eight years ago.
Less than 50,000 US troops remain in Iraq, focused since the end of August last year on advising and assisting Iraqi forces as they take the lead in the fight against a weakened yet resilient insurgency.
Maliki is under pressure not to extend the US military presence beyond the end of the year even though Iraqi and US officials say the country will not be in a position to defend its borders on its own. It will not have a fully functional air force by then.
Anti-US Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose movement has seven ministries in Maliki’s new government, demanded upon his return from exile in Iran last week that the government honour a promise not to allow any US soldiers to remain behind.
Biden has visited Iraq three times in the past 12 months.
On his last trip in September following the formal end of US combat operations on Aug. 31, Biden urged Iraq to overcome a political logjam that had prevented politicians from reaching an agreement on a new government months after a March election.
US officials pushed for a government that would include all the major alliances, including both the actual vote winner, former premier Iyad Allawi’s bloc, and Maliki’s State of Law.
Iraqiya ended up controlling several key posts in the new Maliki government, including that of finance minister. Allawi himself will head a council that will have some influence over foreign, economic and defence policy. Nevertheless, relations between Maliki and Allawi are expected to remain strained
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2011/January/middleeast_January203.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
BAGHDAD - US Vice President Joe Biden flew into Iraq on Thursday for his first visit to the country since Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was reappointed for a second term.
Biden, picked by President Barack Obama as his pointman for Iraq, was expected to meet with Iraqi officials for talks prior to the full withdrawal at the end of the year of the US military, which ousted Saddam Hussein eight years ago.
Less than 50,000 US troops remain in Iraq, focused since the end of August last year on advising and assisting Iraqi forces as they take the lead in the fight against a weakened yet resilient insurgency.
Maliki is under pressure not to extend the US military presence beyond the end of the year even though Iraqi and US officials say the country will not be in a position to defend its borders on its own. It will not have a fully functional air force by then.
Anti-US Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose movement has seven ministries in Maliki’s new government, demanded upon his return from exile in Iran last week that the government honour a promise not to allow any US soldiers to remain behind.
Biden has visited Iraq three times in the past 12 months.
On his last trip in September following the formal end of US combat operations on Aug. 31, Biden urged Iraq to overcome a political logjam that had prevented politicians from reaching an agreement on a new government months after a March election.
US officials pushed for a government that would include all the major alliances, including both the actual vote winner, former premier Iyad Allawi’s bloc, and Maliki’s State of Law.
Iraqiya ended up controlling several key posts in the new Maliki government, including that of finance minister. Allawi himself will head a council that will have some influence over foreign, economic and defence policy. Nevertheless, relations between Maliki and Allawi are expected to remain strained
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2011/January/middleeast_January203.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
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