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Iraq

Iraq summons Turkish envoy over Erdogan broadside

2012-04-24

[Emirates 24/7] Iraq, locked in a public row with neighbouring Turkey, has summoned Ankara's ambassador in Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... to protest at critical remarks by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, the foreign ministry said on Monday. The envoy, Younis Demerer, heard the Iraqi complaint on Sunday after several days of charge and counter-charge. Erdogan accused his Iraqi counterpart Nuri Al-Maliki on Thursday of stoking conflict between various groups through "self-centred" behaviour. Maliki fired back that Turkey was becoming a "hostile state" with a sectarian agenda, saying it was meddling in Iraqi affairs and trying to establish regional "hegemony". Erdogan returned to the fray on Saturday, saying: "If we respond to Mr. Maliki, we give him the opportunity to show off." Analysts say mainly Turkey is worried that growing tensions in Iraq and violence in their mutual neighbour Syria may lead to a wider conflict in the region. Erdogan's government has also recently forged close ties with Masoud Barzani, president of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, which is embroiled in a row with the Storied Baghdad government over claims to the city of Kirkuk and the region's oil. "(Foreign ministry undersecretary) Mr. Labeed Abbawi acquainted the Turkish Ambassador with the Iraqi government's intense protest against the recent statements," the Iraqi foreign ministry said on its website. "Undersecretary Abbawi expressed hope that the Turkish government will stop giving statements that affect Iraq's illusory sovereignty and internal affairs." Erdogan has criticised Maliki several times since sectarian tensions flared in Iraq in December when the government tried to remove Deputy Prime Minister Saleh Al Mutlaq and sought an arrest warrant for Vice President Tareq Al Hashemi on charges he ran death squads. Hashemi decamped Storied Baghdad and has since met Erdogan in Istanbul. The rift between Storied Baghdad and the Kurds worsened this month when the Kurdistan Regional Government said it was halting oil exports because the central government was not paying oil firms operating in the north.

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Iraq

Qatar urged to hand over fugitive Iraqi VP

2012-04-03

BAGHDAD - Iraq on Monday said Qatar’s welcoming of Baghdad’s fugitive Sunni Vice President Tareq Al Hashemi was “unacceptable” and called on Doha to hand him over. “The state of Qatar receiving a wanted person is an unacceptable act and Qatar should back off from this stance, and return him to Iraq,” Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Al Shahristani told a news conference in Baghdad. Shahristani added that the autonomous Kurdistan region, where Hashemi had been holed up since charges were issued against him in December, had committed a “clear challenge to law and justice” by allowing him to leave the country. Hashemi arrived on Sunday in Doha, where he was welcomed by Qatari Minister of State Shaikh Hamad bin Nasser bin Jassem Al Thani, according to Qatari state news agency QNA. He “left the Kurdistan region of Iraq this morning, Sunday, going to Doha,” accepting an invitation he had previously received, a statement from Hashemi’s office emailed to AFP said.

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Iraq

US to hold ‘Chemical Ali’ until Iraqi leaders agree

2007-12-03

BAGHDAD - The United States said on Sunday it will hold Saddam Hussein’s cousin, known as ‘Chemical Ali’, and two other former officials sentenced to death, until Iraqi leaders reach a consensus on their fate. Iraq’s prime minister, president and a vice president have been at odds over who has the authority to order the execution of Ali Hassan Al Majeed, former Defence Minister Sultan Hashem and former army commander Hussein Rashid Muhammad. US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said: ‘They are in United States custody and ... once the government of Iraq has reached a consensus on what they wish to do with these detainees we will then take action.’ So they can swing or they can stay in our custody. Works for me. The Iraqi government said on Friday Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki had asked US President George W. Bush to order the handover of the three so they can be executed. Negroponte said he would not comment on diplomatic communications. ‘At the moment the government of Iraq itself has not reached a consensus as to what to do about the situation so we await that,’ Negroponte told a news conference in Baghdad. An Iraqi court in September upheld the death sentence against the three men who were convicted of genocide for their roles in a campaign against Iraq’s Kurds in 1988. Under Iraq’s constitution, the death sentence should have been carried out within 30 days. President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who opposes the death penalty, and Vice President Tareq Al Hashemi, a member of Saddam’s Sunni Arab minority, say Iraq’s constitution requires that the three-man presidency council—made up of the president and two vice presidents—agree to an execution. Maliki’s government says the council has no such power. The US military has said it would keep the three men until it receives an ‘authoritative government of Iraq request’. Many Sunni Arabs believe former Defence Minister Hashem should be spared execution, arguing he was only a figurehead in a campaign run by Majeed. Hang him anyway and teach people the danger of being a figurehead in an odious regime.

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Iraq

Bush envoy holds talks with Sunni leaders

2006-09-03

Former U S Secretary of State James Baker, who heads an independent panel charged with taking a fresh look at US policy in Iraq, met the most senior Sunni leaders in the Iraqi coalition government yesterday. Baker held talks in Baghdad with Vice-President Tareq Al Hashemi and Deputy Prime Minister Salam Al Zobaie, both members of the Sunni minority who form the backbone of the insurgency fighting to oust US forces from Iraq. Zobaie has been meeting Sunni tribal leaders as part of the Iraqi government's efforts to defuse the insurgency. Hashemi has been critical of the national reconciliation plan, saying it is vague and fails to set a timetable for a US troop pullout. The US embassy declined further comment on the unannounced visit to Iraq. It was not clear how long Baker, who also met President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, had been in the country. Baker, a close friend of the Bush family who served under President George W Bush's father, sat silently at a news conference held after his meeting with Zobaie. "James Baker was the engineer of US foreign policy for many years. He has been sent by George Bush personally to find out the reality of what is happening in Iraq," Zobaie said.

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