The withdrawal of US forces from Iraqi cities won't affect security in the country, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki assured US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi in Baghdad on Sunday. "We don't need big numbers of (US) military forces inside the cities after we get control of them," Maliki said in a statement after meeting with Pelosi, who arrived in the Iraqi capital unannounced earlier in the day. "The responsible withdrawal (of US troops) will not affect the security situation...Read Full Story
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday Turkey wanted Iranian gas to be transported to Europe via the planned Nabucco pipeline "when conditions allow," despite U.S. opposition. European Union governments and Turkey were to sign transit agreements in Ankara later on Monday for the EU and U.S.-backed Nabucco pipeline, which aims to reduce Europe's energy dependence on Russia by transporting gas from the Caspian and Middle East through the planned pipeline from...Read Full Story
BAGHDAD ( Reuters ) - The head of Iraq 's central bank said on Tuesday he was not worried the bank's independence may be compromised by a court ruling placing it under the cabinet, despite having warned Iraq's overseas assets could be at risk. The Iraqi supreme court last month ruled that several ostensibly independent institutions, including the central bank, the anti-corruption watchdog and the electoral agency, should be supervised by the cabinet, and not by parliament. The decision was...Read Full Story
Muntazer al-Zaidi an Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush apologized to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki for embarrassing him before the watching world, the prime minister’s office said on Thursday.
TV reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi shot to instant fame when he called Bush a “dog” in Arabic at a joint news conference with Maliki in Baghdad last Sunday and threw both his shoes at Bush in a gesture that is a deep insult in the Arab world.
“Zaidi said in his...Read Full Story
A baby miraculously survived a Baghdad car bombing cradled in his mother's lap as she was burned alive in a blast that claimed the lives of eight people on Tuesday, witnesses said. The baby boy's father was seriously wounded in the attack not far from a Shiite Muslim shrine in the Kadhimiyah neighbourhood of northern Baghdad, police and witnesses said. Tuesday's attack came shortly before US President Barack Obama arrived in the Iraqi capital on a surprise visit. It also came hard on the...Read Full Story
United States policy today is focused on maintaining the status quo in Iraq, offering unqualified support for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki in the name of stability. But the status quo is inherently unstable. Maliki, emboldened by ...
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki gestures during a press conference in 2011. The Iraqiya bloc sent a "positive signal" by ending its parliament boycott, and its eventual return to the cabinet depends on how Iraq's premier responds, the country's ...
Iraqiya began a boycott of parliament and the cabinet in December to protest what it charged was Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's centralisation of power, and it has since called for Maliki to respect a power-sharing deal or quit. Iraqiya's MPs ...
"Bin Helli and his AL delegation arrived at Baghdad airport before noon on a four-day official visit," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Bin Helli is scheduled to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Foreign Minister Hoshyar ...
Irbil, Iraq (CNN)-- Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi has lashed out at Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, predicting that Iraq could soon return to widespread sectarian violence that could require the return of U.S. forces. "Al-Maliki is ...
In August 2007 , CNN reported that the firm of Barbour, Griffith & Rogers had "begun a public campaign to undermine the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Baghdad on Thursday, seeking to strengthen ties often strained by Kurdish PKK rebels who use remote parts of northern Iraq to launch attacks on Turkish soil. Erdogan is the first ...