Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for Iraq
Newsline: Freed Russian Bikers Await Visas to Exit Iraq
Four Russian bikers jailed for five days after entering Iraq without valid visas were stranded at the Russian Embassy in Baghdad over the weekend as they waited for paperwork allowing them to leave the country. The bikers obtained fake visas from an organization posing as a travel agency, Russian officials said. The Foreign Ministry said little could be done to secure exit visas for the bikers because all Iraqi government offices were closed on Friday and Saturday, the Iraqi weekend. The Russian Embassy planned to contact the Iraqi Foreign Ministry on Sunday and, if the visas could be obtained in one day, the bikers would return to Russia on Monday. The bikers — Oleg Kapkayev, Alexander Vardanyants, Oleg Maximov and Maxim Ignatyev — entered Iraq from the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region, which they did not need visas to enter, RIA-Novosti reported. After entering Iraq, the bikers were detained in the city of Kirkuk as they headed toward Baghdad. They were released after the Russian Embassy stepped in. The Foreign Ministry negotiated the bikers’ release on Thursday.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/freed-bikers-await-visas-to-exit-iraq/459332.html
Newsline: Iraq summons Turkish ambassador
Iraq has summoned Ankara’s ambassador in Baghdad to protest the behaviour of two Turkish diplomats, the latest episode in a drawn-out public row between the neighbors. An official from Iraq’s foreign ministry met Turkey’s ambassador, Yunus Demirer, to complain about the Turkish diplomats in the cities of Basra and Mosul, a statement on the foreign ministry website said. “Some activities conducted by the two Turkish General Consuls in Basra and Mosul … are far from their Consular duties and obligations stated in the Vienna Convention for Consular Relations of 1963,” the statement said, without elaborating. It said that the meeting took place on Tuesday but did not say what the diplomats were accused of. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Iraqi counterpart Nuri al-Maliki have traded tit-for-tat criticisms and accusations several times this year. Erdogan last month accused Maliki of fanning tensions between Shi’ite Muslims, Sunni Muslims and Kurds in Iraq through “self-centred” behavior. Maliki quickly responded that Turkey was becoming a “hostile state” with a sectarian agenda, saying it was meddling in Iraqi affairs and trying to establish regional “hegemony”. Iraq summoned Turkey’s ambassador at the time and Turkey responded by summoning Iraq’s envoy in Ankara.
http://www.news.az/articles/turkey/60503
Newsline: Iraqi Diplomat in Ankara Summoned
Charge d’affaires with the Iraqi Embassy in Ankara has been summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry headquarters over recent remarks by Iraqi prime minister. He was summoned to convey Turkey’s “strong rejection” of statements made by Nuri al-Maliki who accused Ankara of intervening in Iraq’s internal politics and branded Turkey “a hostile state.” Sources said the Iraqi diplomat was told that Iraq’s peace and stability was a top priority as they directly had repercussions in Turkey and that Turkey opposed any ethnic or sectarian discrimination.
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/134737/iraqi-diplomat-in-ankara-summoned-over-remarks-of-iraqi-official.html
Commentary: US Diplomat Says the War in Iraq Lost
Don’t let anyone tell you the US “won” the Iraq war. During his stint in Iraq, State Department officer Peter Van Buren was so shocked by “the eye-watering waste and mismanagement” he saw that he wrote a blistering book about it. Nothing that’s happened since has changed his conclusion that “we failed in the reconstruction and, through that failure, lost the war,” he writes in Salon. Today’s Iraq is beset by “an angry symphony of suicide bombers.” The Arab League summit wasn’t a sign of progress, it’s a sham for the cameras; authorities have shut down Baghdad, clearing the streets, turning off cell phone service, and spending $500 million on the route to and from the Green Zone. “Somebody in Iraq must have googled ‘Potemkin Village,” snorts Van Buren. What’s more, he’s been shocked by the State Department’s retaliation and spying against him, using tools supposedly put in place to catch terrorists. “We’re becoming East Germany,” he warns.
http://www.newser.com/story/143681/us-diplomat-we-lost-the-war-in-iraq.html
Newsline: Remains of Russian Diplomats Killed in Iraq Discovered
The remains of three Russian diplomats and an intelligence officer who were kidnapped and murdered in Iraq in 2006 have been discovered, the Rosbalt news agency reported on Tuesday, quoting a source in the Russian security services. “A search for the bodies of our colleague and embassy officials have not been halted for even one day since their deaths in Iraq in 2006,” the source said. “We achieved our goal. Their remains were recently discovered on Iraqi territory and delivered to Moscow.” DNA tests confirmed that the remains belonged to Oleg Fedoseyev, an officer with the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), and three employees of the Russian embassy in Iraq, Fyodor Zaitsev, Rinat Agliulin and Anatoly Smirnov, he said. The four Russians were kidnapped on June 3, 2006, when a group of unknown men attacked their car near the Russian embassy in Bagdad, and later murdered. Another Russian national, Vitaly Titov, who is also believed to have been an SVR officer, was killed in the ambush. The Mujahideen Shura Council, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated Iraqi militant group, claimed responsibility for the murders, which it said was a revenge for the Russian authorities’ refusal to stop the killing of fellow Muslims during the war in Chechnya.
http://en.ria.ru/crime/20120410/172729119.html
Newsline: U.S. Embassy in Iraq Calls for an End to Gay Killings
The U.S. Embassy in Iraq has issued a statement condemning a wave of recent killings of gay men in the Middle East country, with estimates ranging from six to 40 murders in the past two weeks. The violence has been directed at homosexuals and young Iraqis who have adopted the “emo” look of dark colors, tight T-shirts and skinny jeans. “We are monitoring this situation closely on the ground and in Washington, and have expressed our concern to the Government of Iraq,” embassy officials announced in a prepared statement. “These acts of intolerance have no place in democratic societies.” An Interior Ministry security officer said that in the past two weeks, officials had found the bodies of six young men whose skulls had been crushed. Reuters reported the toll to be 14 or more, citing hospital and security officials, while rights groups say that more than 40 young men have been killed, but have provided no evidence for this figure.
http://www.fenuxe.com/2012/03/14/u-s-embassy-in-iraq-calls-for-an-end-to-gay-killings/
Newsline: Azerbaijan to open embassy in Bagdad
The Azerbaijani Embassy in Iraq will be opened this year, Iraqi Regional Development Minister Turkhan Mufti said. According to the minister, Iraq is interested in the development of relations with Azerbaijan and considers it to be close, brotherly and friendly country in the region. The Iraqi official also clarified the issue of opening of direct flights from Baku to the cities of Iraq. In particular, he noted that it was planned first of all to open a route from Baku to Bagdad and then there was a possibility of opening a flight from Baku to the city of Najaf, where the holy places are located. Referring to the deterioration of the Iraq-Turkey relations, the minister said that Turkey was a great neighbor of Iraq. “The two countries have good relations, there are more than 40 bilateral agreements and therefore the existing misunderstanding will not affect our strategic relationship with Turkey,” the minister said.
http://www.news.az/articles/politics/55898
Newsline: Libya wishes reopening of embassy in Baghdad
Libyan prime minister Abdulraheem Al-Keib, in a letter to his Iraqi counterpart Nouri Al-Maliki, expressed desire to reopen the Libyan embassy in Baghdad. The letter was delivered by Al-Keib’s advisor Nasser Al-Manna’ during a meeting with Al-Maliki, a government statement said.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2222852&language=en
Newsline: Saudis Pick First Envoy to Baghdad in 20 Years
Moving to repair a long-fractured diplomatic relationship, Saudi Arabia has named its first ambassador to Iraq in more than two decades, Iraq’s foreign minister announced. The Saudis did not, however, say they were reopening an embassy in Baghdad. Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq’s foreign minister, said in a Twitter posting that the Saudi ambassador to Jordan would serve as the new “nonresident” Iraqi envoy. He is Fahd al-Zaid. Still, the Saudi move restores normal diplomatic relations between the oil-rich neighbors for the first time since Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It may also signal Saudi Arabia’s desire for a stronger presence in Iraq to buttress against the influence of Iran, a longtime nemesis of the Saudi kingdom. Ties between Saudi Arabia and Iraq have been especially strained since the 2003 American invasion toppled Mr. Hussein’s Sunni-dominated government and ushered in a Shiite-led one, which has cultivated closer relations with Iran and Iranian-supported political movements inside Iraq. According to diplomatic cables released in 2010 by WikiLeaks, Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, complained to President Obama in 2009 about meddling by the Sunni government in Saudi Arabia. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, for his part, told a top American counterterrorism adviser that he did not trust Mr. Maliki, according to the cables. The two nations found themselves in bitter opposition last year as pro-democracy protests swept through the tiny gulf state of Bahrain. Saudi officials sent in troops to support the Sunni minority rulers in Bahrain, while many in Iraq’s Shiite majority denounced the intervention and rallied in Iraq’s streets to show their solidarity with the largely Shiite demonstrators. Iraq has had an ambassador to Saudi Arabia since 2009, and reopened its embassy in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, as it sought to restore diplomatic ties with its neighbors after the American-led invasion.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12053/1211819-82.stm
Newsline: State Department pushes back on reports of plans to slash Iraq staff
The State Department is vociferously pushing back against what it called “funky” reports that the U.S. plans to cut the size of its diplomatic presence in Baghdad by as much as half because of security concerns and ongoing tensions with the increasingly authoritarian government. “Contrary to some of the news reports, we are not reducing our operations by 50 percent,” Thomas Nides, deputy secretary of State for management and resources, told reporters on a conference call Wednesday. “But, quite frankly, I am hopeful that over the next few months we will be able to reduce our size by reducing our dependency on contractors…. We owe it to the taxpayers.” The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the U.S. was preparing to cut down the size and scope of the embassy in Baghdad — where 16,000 diplomats and contractors are stationed — by half because of security concerns and tussling with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Nides said he doesn’t know “where the 50 percent number came from, but it is what it is.” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland blasted the “wild guesstimates” in a “couple of funky pieces” about the reductions in personnel. “To the degree to which there may be a reduction in the diplomatic personnel, it’ll be modest,” she told reporters during a briefing on Wednesday. The assessment of how to create a more “normalized embassy presence” since the last American troops pulled out of the country in December will continue well into this year, Nides said. Another way to trim expenses is to consolidate some of the locations and spaces the diplomatic presence actually needs, and rely more on local Iraqi contractors, Nides said. The number of security guards is “a total derivative” of the square footage they need to protect, he noted. A day earlier, Nuland dismissed the complaints featured in the Times article about how “life became more difficult” for the thousands of diplomats and contractors after the last American troops pulled out in December. Nuland said on Tuesday she did not consider an insufficient amount of arugula at the salad bar to necessarily constitute a hardship in Iraq. “Frankly, I saw that story,” Nuland said, “and it looked like some, some whingeing that was inappropriate… on the part of embassy employees, with regard to the quality of the salad bar.”
http://news.gnom.es/public-policy/state-department-pushes-back-on-reports-of-plans-to-slash-iraq-staff
