lundi 19 novembre 2012

Iraqi PM Rejects Biden's Offer for Deployment of US Troops in Kirkuk


TEHRAN (FNA)- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
rejected a proposal by US Vice-President Joe
Biden for the deployment of the US forces in Iraq's
Northern province of Kirkuk.






Biden in a telephone conversation with Iraqi prime
minister Saturday night asked for Maliki's consent
to the deployment of the US troops in Kirkuk, but
the premier rejected the US vice-president's offer,
an informed source told FNA in Baghdad on Sunday.

The source, who asked to remain unnamed due to
the sensitivity of his information, said during the
phone talk, Biden voiced concern about a recent
clash between the Pishmerga forces of the Iraqi
Kurdistan region - who are the local law
enforcement troops of the Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG) - and Iraq's Federal Police
troops, and said the US troops should be
deployed in the oil rich Kirkuk province in a bid
to prevent the outbreak of a civil war.

"But the Iraqi Prime Minister strongly rejected
Biden's proposal," the source added.

Earlier this year in June, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki cancelled a pending visit by the US
vice-president to Baghdad, which was aimed
at meetings with high-ranking Iraqi officials.

"Nuri al-Maliki did not allow US Vice-President
Joe Biden to visit Iraq," an informed source in
the Iraqi prime minister's information bureau
told FNA in Baghdad in June.

Earlier reports by a website affiliated to the
Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq said that the
cancellation of Biden's visit by Maliki was ordered
after it had been revealed that the US
vice-president was due to visit the Kurdish
city of Erbil.

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