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Biden Calls Maliki, Barzani after Bombings
in Iraq
26.12.2011 |
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Biden makes holiday calls to Iraq leaders
December 26, 2011
WASHINGTON, — The White House says
Vice President Joe Biden has spoken by phone with
Iraqi leaders to urge them to hold a “dialogue” to
resolve a political crisis in their fragile
power-sharing government.
Biden's office says he spoke with Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Sunday and the president
of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region Massoud
Barzani on Saturday. It says the vice president
“exchanged views with both leaders on the current
political climate in Iraq” and reiterated U.S.
support for “ongoing efforts to convene a dialogue
among Iraqi political leaders.”
Biden has played a leading role in U.S. diplomatic
efforts to try to calm Iraq's sectarian tensions,
which intensified as the U.S. military completed a
withdrawal from the country earlier this month,
ending an eight-year long war.
Since the pullout, Iraq's Shi'ite Prime Minister
Maliki has called on the country's Sunni Vice
President Tareq al-Hashemi to appear in a Baghdad
court to face charges of hiring bodyguards to
assassinate political opponents. Hashemi fled the
capital to Iraqi Kurdistan to avoid an arrest
warrant in the case. Iraqi Kurdish leaders have
given him refuge.
Mr. Maliki also has urged parliament to fire his
Sunni deputy Saleh al-Mutlak, who called the prime
minister a dictator in a recent interview.
Hashemi and Mutlak belong to Iraqiya, a
parliamentary faction backed by many of Iraq's
minority Sunnis. It began a boycott of parliament
this month to protest Mr. Maliki's perceived
centralization of power in the hands of his Shi'ite
ruling faction.
In an interview with the French news agency
published Sunday,www.ekurd.net
Hashemi acknowledged that his guards may have
carried out attacks, but he denied any involvement.
He said he will not return to Baghdad because the
jailing of his guards leaves him with no security in
the city and because he believes Iraq's judicial
system is politicized.
Hashemi has called for his case to be transferred to
Iraqi Kurdistan's court system.
In Biden's phone calls with Iraqi leaders, the White
House says he also offered condolences for a wave of
bombings in Baghdad that killed at least 69 people
on Thursday. The attacks raised concerns about Iraqi
leaders' ability to secure the country as they try
to resolve bitter political divisions in the absence
of U.S. troops.
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