Deputy premier discusses security pact with Biden

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Burham Saleh on Monday discussed with the visiting U.S. Vice President-elect Joe Biden the U.S. troops withdrawal agreement and the framework agreement between the two countries. “Saleh received Biden and Senator Lindsey Graham,” according to a statement released from Saleh’s office received by IraqiNews.com news agency. “The two sides reviewed ways to foster bilateral ties,” it added. “The meeting also tackled means to boost cultural and commercial cooperation within the friendship and cooperation agreement signed between the two countries,” it also said. The meeting was attended by Head of the Kurdistan Alliance Fouad Massoum and Industry Minister fawzi al-Hariri for the Iraqi side, while Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General Commander of the Coalition forces General Raymond Odierno from the U.S. side. A presidential source had said earlier that Joe Biden arrived in Baghdad on Monday on a surprise visit to Iraq. Biden voted for the 2003 invasion of Iraq but later became a critic of the war and the way in which President George W. Bush was executing it. He is best known in Iraq as the author of a 2006 plan to divide the country into self-governing Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish enclaves — an idea that offended many Iraqi politicians and was quietly put on the back burner as violence ebbed. SH (S)/SR 1