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Explosions Welcome Cheney in Baghdad Visit
By Hanan Awarekeh
17/03/2008 US Vice President Dick Cheney, an architect of the US-led invasion of Iraq, swept into Baghdad on an unannounced visit Monday, looking to highlight security gains and promote elusive political progress days before the war enters its sixth year.
17/03/2008 US Vice President Dick Cheney, an architect of the US-led invasion of Iraq, swept into Baghdad on an unannounced visit Monday, looking to highlight security gains and promote elusive political progress days before the war enters its sixth year.
Soon after he arrived, two explosions rocked Baghdad, following a roadside bombing that killed a policeman, underscoring the violence that still grips the nation almost five years after the US-led invasion. A security official said one of the blasts was caused by a mortar attack on the highly-fortified Green Zone, home of the US embassy and the seat of Iraqi government.
Cheney met the top US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and the US ambassador Ryan Crocker, and was to hold talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other senior Iraqi political figures.
The unheralded visit, shrouded in secrecy and blanketed with security, came as Cheney opened a nine-day visit to the Middle East and beyond, with scheduled stops in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the West Bank, and Turkey.
A senior administration official told reporters accompanying Cheney that the vice president would tell the Iraqis "they need to continue to show some progress" on legislation seen as key to defusing strife. Those laws include an oil-revenue sharing measure; a law setting out provincial government powers; and one covering elections that the US official said were expected to take place October 1.
The official, who asked not to be named, said ongoing negotiations to forge an agreement governing long-term US-Iraq ties would be part of the talks five years after the March 20, 2003 US-led invasion. The framework needs to be in place by year's end because that is when the UN mandate for the US-led occupation ends, but "that conversation is really just beginning," the official said.
Cheney's talks with Crocker and Petraeus came as they prepared to make a progress report on the unpopular war to the US Congress on April 8-9, which is expected to shape debate on withdrawal of the some 158,000 US occupation troops.
Speaking to reporters after talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Cheney said he had been sent by President George W. Bush to thank Iraq's leaders for their efforts in steering the country towards democracy. He was in Baghdad, he said, to "reaffirm to the Iraqi people the unwavering commitment of the United States to support them in finishing the difficult work that lies ahead." Cheney was also due to hold talks with other senior Iraqi political figures, including President Jalal Talabani.
Bush's Republicans worry that the war could cost them the November 4 elections, which will decide control of Congress and who takes the keys of the White House in January 2009. The US-led invasion has claimed nearly 4,000 US lives and cost - by the Pentagon's conservative estimate - upwards of 400 billion dollars.
Cheney made a similar trip in May 2007, months after Bush ordered some 30,000 more US occupation soldiers to the country to give what aides called "breathing space" to the government in Baghdad to enact difficult legislation aimed at fostering national reconciliation.
Speaking to the Washington Post last week, Petraeus said that "no one" in the US and Iraqi governments "feels that there has been sufficient progress by any means in the area of national reconciliation," or in providing basic public services.
Both Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, have vowed to start bringing troops home in 2009 if elected. Republican candidate John McCain, also in Baghdad, said last week the quickest way of bringing the war to a conclusion was by "continuing the surge".
Beyond Iraq, the vice president's mission aimed to help revive the battered "peace process" and convince Arab allies like Saudi Arabia to do more to help curb regional powerhouse Iran's influence in Iraq. He was due to meet in Palestinian occupied territories with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other top officials and, separately, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and prime minister Salam Fayyad in a bid to push talks the two sides agreed to restart at a November conference in Annapolis, Maryland.
In Turkey, much of the talks will focus on that US NATO ally's incursion into northern Iraq to crush rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and a promise of continued US and Iraqi help against what much of the world deems a terrorist group, the official told reporters.
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Cheney met the top US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and the US ambassador Ryan Crocker, and was to hold talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other senior Iraqi political figures.
The unheralded visit, shrouded in secrecy and blanketed with security, came as Cheney opened a nine-day visit to the Middle East and beyond, with scheduled stops in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the West Bank, and Turkey.
A senior administration official told reporters accompanying Cheney that the vice president would tell the Iraqis "they need to continue to show some progress" on legislation seen as key to defusing strife. Those laws include an oil-revenue sharing measure; a law setting out provincial government powers; and one covering elections that the US official said were expected to take place October 1.
The official, who asked not to be named, said ongoing negotiations to forge an agreement governing long-term US-Iraq ties would be part of the talks five years after the March 20, 2003 US-led invasion. The framework needs to be in place by year's end because that is when the UN mandate for the US-led occupation ends, but "that conversation is really just beginning," the official said.
Cheney's talks with Crocker and Petraeus came as they prepared to make a progress report on the unpopular war to the US Congress on April 8-9, which is expected to shape debate on withdrawal of the some 158,000 US occupation troops.
Speaking to reporters after talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Cheney said he had been sent by President George W. Bush to thank Iraq's leaders for their efforts in steering the country towards democracy. He was in Baghdad, he said, to "reaffirm to the Iraqi people the unwavering commitment of the United States to support them in finishing the difficult work that lies ahead." Cheney was also due to hold talks with other senior Iraqi political figures, including President Jalal Talabani.
Bush's Republicans worry that the war could cost them the November 4 elections, which will decide control of Congress and who takes the keys of the White House in January 2009. The US-led invasion has claimed nearly 4,000 US lives and cost - by the Pentagon's conservative estimate - upwards of 400 billion dollars.
Cheney made a similar trip in May 2007, months after Bush ordered some 30,000 more US occupation soldiers to the country to give what aides called "breathing space" to the government in Baghdad to enact difficult legislation aimed at fostering national reconciliation.
Speaking to the Washington Post last week, Petraeus said that "no one" in the US and Iraqi governments "feels that there has been sufficient progress by any means in the area of national reconciliation," or in providing basic public services.
Both Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, have vowed to start bringing troops home in 2009 if elected. Republican candidate John McCain, also in Baghdad, said last week the quickest way of bringing the war to a conclusion was by "continuing the surge".
Beyond Iraq, the vice president's mission aimed to help revive the battered "peace process" and convince Arab allies like Saudi Arabia to do more to help curb regional powerhouse Iran's influence in Iraq. He was due to meet in Palestinian occupied territories with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other top officials and, separately, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and prime minister Salam Fayyad in a bid to push talks the two sides agreed to restart at a November conference in Annapolis, Maryland.
In Turkey, much of the talks will focus on that US NATO ally's incursion into northern Iraq to crush rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and a promise of continued US and Iraqi help against what much of the world deems a terrorist group, the official told reporters.
--
http://almasakinnewsagency.googlepages.com/
http://feeds.feedburner.com/Al-masakinNewsAgency
http://almasakinnewsagency.blogspot.com/
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