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Maliki and Obama meet Wednesday

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1Maliki and Obama meet Wednesday Empty Maliki and Obama meet Wednesday Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:44 am

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Maliki and Obama meet Wednesday

20/07/2009 21:58 21:58 GMT:

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday morning in Enyoryuk UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the first day of his official visit to the United States.

Maliki will meet also with President Barack Obama on Wednesday, said spokesman Robert Ghebs White House meeting will focus on the ongoing security challenges.

For his part, Ali al-Musawi, an adviser to Maliki, told the French press the eve of the visit, said that Maliki does not always tell the guests who were visiting Iraq, he rejected all interventions in internal affairs.

2Maliki and Obama meet Wednesday Empty Re: Maliki and Obama meet Wednesday Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:11 am

Guest


Guest

Ok, so it is back to WEDNESDAY again. LOL! I wish they would just make up their minds on when this is going to happen. HAHAH!

Roxy

Roxy

Tue Jul 21, 5:36 am ET
BAGHDAD – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is heading to Washington to visit President Barack Obama and seek U.S. investment in Iraq despite persistent security concerns.

Iraqi Cabinet official Ali al-Mousawi says al-Maliki left Baghdad Tuesday morning with the defense and interior ministers as well as the head of an investment committee.

The White House says Obama will meet al-Maliki on Wednesday. Press secretary Robert Gibbs says U.S. officials want to keep the focus on the political reconciliation that is necessary for Iraq to make progress after years of war.

Security has improved in Iraq, but insurgents still carry out near-daily attacks. Iraqi police say bombings on Tuesday killed at least five people and injured dozens.

Roxy

Roxy

Iraqi leader to discuss security during talks with Obama
By The Associated Press
Tuesday July 21, 2009
BAGHDAD (AP) – The need for Iraqi leaders to accelerate political reconciliation efforts to safeguard recent security gains in their country will be the main focus of talks between Iraq's prime minister and President Barack Obama during a visit to Washington starting Tuesday.

The fragility of Iraq's security situation was underlined Tuesday as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki left for the United States. A series of bombings in Baghdad and west of the capital killed at least eight people and wounded dozens.

Security has improved in Iraq over the past two years, but insurgents still carry out regular attacks.

The latest wave of attacks comes three weeks after Iraqi forces took over responsibility for security in Baghdad and other cities following the completion on June 30 of U.S. troop withdrawal from urban areas.

The U.S-Iraqi security pact, which took effect on Jan. 1; prospects for U.S. private investment in Iraq; and political reconciliation will top al-Maliki's discussions in Washington with Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, lawmakers and business leaders.

A large part of Obama's Wednesday meeting with al-Maliki will be about political change that is needed for progress to occur in Iraq, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday.

"I have no doubt that that will take up a large part of the meeting with the prime minister," he said.

With six months left before Iraq's next general election, Iraq's main Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish groups remain sharply divided over a wide array of issues that range from how to share the country's vast oil wealth to the authority of the central government and political power-sharing.

The United States has consistently called on Iraq's political leaders to reach an enduring power-sharing formula to serve as the underpin for security. Without such a deal, the Americans and others have warned, Iraq could slip back into the kind of sectarian violence that tore the country in 2006 and 2007.

The United States has about 130,000 troops in Iraq at present, but all of its combat units will leave the country in August next year and the remainder by the end of 2011.

In Tuesday's violence, two people were killed when two bombs exploded a few seconds apart near a group of day laborers in the Shiite district of Sadr City in northeast Baghdad. Police said one bomb was hidden in a food stall and the other was concealed in a trash pile.

Ahmed Ali was working in a nearby bakery when the explosions occurred.

"After a few seconds, dust and smoke reached the bakery. We stayed inside because we feared other explosions might occur," Ali said. "After about five minutes, we went out to see what happened. We saw the bodies covered with blood and some food containers and construction tools scattered here and there."

Several hours later, a roadside bomb exploded near a market in Sadr City, killing 4 people, including two children and wounding at least 39 others, police said.

In the Dora district of south Baghdad, one person was killed and seven were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a wholesale produce market, police said.

In Ramadi, 70 miles (115 kilometers) west of Baghdad, police said a suicide car bomber killed one person and injured 19 others, including several children.

Ramadi is the capital of Anbar province, a former insurgent stronghold. Police in the province on Tuesday declared a two-day ban on the use of vehicles and motorcycles as they searched for suspects in a recent spate of bombings in Ramadi and nearby Fallujah.

Roxy

Roxy

Iraq Hopes for U.N. Sanctions to Be Lifted as Maliki Arrives in U.S.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki is visiting the United Nations on Wednesday in hopes of getting assurances that sanctions against Iraq will be lifted.
By Nina Donaghy

FOXNews.com

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

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Maliki is meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon one day ahead of his first meeting with President Obama since U.S. troops withdrew from Iraqi cities at the end of June.

While Iraq faces U.S. pressure to speed up efforts for national reconciliation and provide assurances that Iraq's security forces are capable of protecting their own urban populations, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told FOX News on Monday that Iraq will soon be released from all 73 U.N. resolutions and "Chapter 7" sanctions.

Zebari said Ban would present his report to the Security Council next week and he was confident that Iraq would be released from its obligations "by this summer."

Remaining sanctions were impeding progress in certain government ministries such as health and education, preventing vital equipment from being imported, Zebari said.

The international body imposed sanctions on the country after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Among its requirements is restitution to Kuwait for the invasion.

The foreign minister suggested that releasing Iraqi from its commitment would not be a problem for its neighbor.

"Coming out of Chapter 7 will not disadvantage our Kuwaiti brothers," Zebari said.

In fact, Zebari, who was in Washington, D.C., ahead of Maliki's arrival, said diplomatic regional relations with Iraq's neighbors are "in a new phase," and noted that most Gulf Cooperation Council nations had re-appointed their ambassadors to Baghdad. The long-promised ambassador from Saudi Arabia has not yet arrived, but Zebari said Iraq's ambassador in the Saudi kingdom was very active.

As for Iran and Syria, which share lengthy borders with Iraq, Zebari said Iraq supports U.S. engagement efforts with both, adding that Iraq has a "role to play."

He said Iran has shown signs of greater transparency on the issue of cross-border arms smuggling.

"We have been very direct," Zebari said, noting the issue has been on the table in all discussions with his Iranian counterpart.

As for Syria, that country has made a start by stemming the flow of insurgents across its previously porous border.

"Syria has cooperated by controlling the numbers of foreign fighters by imposing certain restrictions on airports, checking IDs. The numbers of have gone down, but more needs to be done," he said.

Relations with the United States also require maintenance, he said, emphasizing the need for the Obama administration to help smooth some internal strife.

"There are problems in Iraq that could turn into crises. The administration needs to keep its focus," he said.

Zebari said while it welcomes U.S. involvement, Iraq wants to accelerate the Strategic Forces Agreement, the document that outlines the pullback of U.S. forces until its withdrawal by 2011. The Iraqi army and police had "matured and proved themselves," he said, though the possibility of a resurgence of the Sons of Iraq and other militias remains.

Zebari also called upon the United States to play an active role in resolving the country's stalled negotiations over oil profits. A version of the oil law had been approved by leaders of various political groups but leaders of Kurdistan, where 100,000 barrels of oil are produced each day, are reluctant to put their oil profits straight into the national budget.

"We need America and other bodies to mediate," he said, noting that the oil law is not the only source of tension between the Kurdish regional authority and Iraq's central government in Baghdad.

"There are political difficulties. There is definitely tension, there are delays, as people are selectively interpreting the constitution."

But the foreign minister downplayed the notion of intractable tensions saying that Baghdad hosted visits from Kurdish officials and that in his view the situation would improve after Kurdistan provincial elections, which he predicted would take place at the end of this year ahead of Iraq's own general elections in January 2010.

6Maliki and Obama meet Wednesday Empty Re: Maliki and Obama meet Wednesday Wed Jul 22, 2009 9:52 am

Roxy

Roxy

Iraqi-Kuwaiti Race to Washington Regarding UN Chapter 7

The meeting today between Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and U.S. President Obama will coincide with a visit to Washington by the Emir of Kuwait, Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber.

While the two leaders are Washington, their foreign ministers are in New York, seeking opposing objectives.

Iraq wants to be removed from the sanctions imposed by Chapter 7 of the UN Charter while Kuwait would like to keep Iraq under them much longer.

Under the sanctions, Iraq is obliged to pay 5% of its oil revenues to Kuwait as compensation for its invasion by Iraq in 1990.

Iraq argues that the payments have amounted to billions of dollars and pose a heavy burden on its national budget.

Iraq is asking that the issue of compensation should be resolved bilaterally.

Source: Al-Zaman, Iraq, July 22, 2009

Roxy

Roxy

Maliki to meet Obama, seek support for investment


By Ross Colvin


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki meets President Barack Obama on Wednesday in a visit aimed at asserting Iraq's newfound sovereignty and encouraging foreign investors to return to the war-ravaged country.
Three weeks after U.S. troops withdrew from Iraqi towns and cities, paving the way for a full withdrawal by the end of 2011, both Washington and Baghdad are eager to show their relationship has moved into a new phase, one that will see more emphasis placed on non-military cooperation.
Maliki will also hold talks with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and attend an investment conference, U.S. officials said.
"The visit will highlight the non-security ties and lay the groundwork for future economic cooperation and trade," one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Maliki's Shi'ite Muslim-led government is aggressively courting foreign investors as it struggles to resurrect an economy calcified by decades of sanctions, neglect and war.
During his trip to the United States this week, Maliki will tout Iraq's improved security after six years of conflict that saw tens of thousands of people killed in insurgent and sectarian violence and millions more forced from their homes.
More than 4,300 American soldiers have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein. There are still 130,000 U.S. troops in the country.
But investors remain unsure whether Iraq's legal and regulatory framework will offer them sufficient protection, and while violence has dipped sharply, major bomb attacks are not uncommon. Iraq is also riven by deep divisions among majority Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds.
The Obama administration remains concerned about the pace of political reconciliation in Iraq but, unlike the Bush administration, there are no plans to set political benchmarks for Maliki's government to meet.
"We are not going to be dictating to the Iraqis what they need to do," the U.S. official said. "The main focus will be to stress the importance of a comprehensive long-term partnership that goes beyond security."
The official said he did not know whether Obama planned to raise the issue of political reconciliation at his White House meeting with Maliki.
Both Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden, have used trips to Iraq this year to call on Iraq's government to reach a political accommodation with opponents on disputes ranging from sharing oil revenues to resolving internal boundary issues.
LIFTING CHAPTER 7 STATUS
There are also concerns over growing tensions between Iraq's semi-autonomous territory of Kurdistan and Baghdad that analysts fear could trigger renewed conflict just as the country recovers from years of sectarian bloodletting.
Kurds want to fold the disputed city of Kirkuk, which U.S. officials say could hold as much as 4 percent of world oil reserves, into their northern region, but Maliki's government strongly opposes the move.
"Maliki will ask the U.S. to increase pressure on the Kurdish government. Finding a solution for this issue is vital and cannot be postponed any longer," said Saad al-Hadithi, a political analyst at Baghdad University.
Maliki, whose nationalist stance has helped him outmaneuver political rivals, is also determined to change the perception that Iraq is a client state of the United States and not in control of its own affairs.
"This trip is considered very important because it takes place in the search for a framework for a relationship that is not military but civilian, including diplomatic, political and cultural ties," said Maliki's spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh.
Dabbagh said Maliki in meetings with Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would also press for the lifting of Iraq's Chapter 7 status under a 1991 U.N. Security Council resolution that requires it to pay 5 percent of its oil revenues as war reparations for the 1991 Gulf War.
Dabbagh said the Chapter 7 status had "handcuffed Iraq, restricted its sovereignty and burdened it with the crimes of the former regime," a reference to Saddam and his ill-fated invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
Saddam was executed in December 2006.
(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau in New York, and Waleed Ibrahim, Missy Ryan and Mohammed Abbas in Baghdad)
Copyright ©️ 2008 Reuters

8Maliki and Obama meet Wednesday Empty Iraq PM lobbies UN for easing of sanctions Wed Jul 22, 2009 12:18 pm

Roxy

Roxy

Iraq PM lobbies UN for easing of sanctions

44 mins ago


UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki visited UN headquarters Wednesday to press for an easing of UN sanctions slapped on his country after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The Iraqi leader first had a private meeting with UN chief Ban Ki-moon and later huddled with envoys of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.
"We were able to clarify... that Iraq does not appear to be a threat to the international community any more," he told reporters afterward.
He argued that the sanctions were therefore "no longer required" and said he was awaiting a report by Ban reviewing Iraq-related resolutions and the progress made by the Baghdad government to resolve the dispute.
Maliki said the council ambassadors expressed "understanding."
Iraq wants the Security Council to remove it from special regulations under Chapter Seven of the UN charter, which require the government to pay reparations and designate the country a threat to international security and stability.
The Maliki government wants the council to accept that it no longer poses a threat to international security, the pretext for the sanctions imposed on Saddam's regime and for the 1991 Gulf War in which his forces were evicted from Kuwait.
The sanctions require Iraq to satisfy Kuwaiti demands on reparations and the return of property, as well as demarcation of their shared border and the repatriation of the remains of prisoners of war.
Kuwait insists there should be no change in the Security Council's position until its resolutions have been fully complied with.
Maliki was later to fly to Washington for talks with US President Barack Obama.
It will be the first meeting between Maliki and President Obama since US troops withdrew from Iraqi cities at the end of June, a milestone in Iraq's rehabilitation after the 2003 US-led invasion.
During his four-day US visit, Maliki was to confer with Vice President Joseph Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and the Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The Iraqi leader is hoping to drum up investment for a country in dire need of rebuilding after years of sanctions and war. His visit will include an investment conference at the US Department of Commerce.

9Maliki and Obama meet Wednesday Empty Re: Maliki and Obama meet Wednesday Wed Jul 22, 2009 12:45 pm

Just_AL

Just_AL

Al-Maliki met U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for a half-hour Wednesday morning at U.N. headquarters in New York and then sat down with the five veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to press for the lifting of all legally binding resolutions against his country stemming from Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

If they don't get this lifted it won't be from a lack of trying...

10Maliki and Obama meet Wednesday Empty Re: Maliki and Obama meet Wednesday Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:54 am

Roxy

Roxy

For their part, Iraqi officials have focused on the need for commitment of the United States pledge to support Iraq in its quest to get out of the resolutions of the Security Council under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.


And after the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's commitment to this country, as stipulated in the Convention on the development of U.S. forces in Iraq, it seems that this issue will be approved, rather than a dispute between the parties.


Washington is working with Baghdad to find a formula to protect Iraqi funds from the legal claims in case of Iraq out of Chapter VII.


However, the Iraqi side wants faster action from the United States on this issue, while the focus of U.S. officials that the file is complex, especially because it involves the protection of Iraqi funds.

11Maliki and Obama meet Wednesday Empty Re: Maliki and Obama meet Wednesday Thu Jul 23, 2009 11:35 am

Guest


Guest

Washington is working with Baghdad to find a formula to protect Iraqi
funds from the legal claims in case of Iraq out of Chapter VII.


However,
the Iraqi side wants faster action from the United States on this
issue, while the focus of U.S. officials that the file is complex,
especially because it involves the protection of Iraqi funds.

Good find!!!!!!!

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