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Biden Tells Iraqis to Mend Fences —Like, Now

VP urges Maliki to strengthen coalition with Kurds, Sunnis

By Neal Colgrass, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 25, 2011 2:32 PM CST

(Newser) – Joe Biden called Iraqi officials today, urging them to calm rising sectarian tensions after a bombing killed at least 63 people there earlier this week, the AP reports. Biden and other US officials have been phoning Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as well as Sunni and Kurdish leaders all week, asking them to "stop hurling accusations at each other through the media and actually sit together and work through your competing concerns,” a White House official tells the New York Times.

For leverage, Washington is reminding Maliki that his ability to create a coalition will "color" US economic, security, and diplomatic relations with Iraq. The US also has F-16 warplanes that Iraq wants to buy. But even with John McCain criticizing President Obama over the pullout, and experts warning that Iraq could devolve into civil war, Washington says US troops are staying out. “There is not a great deal of appetite for re-engagement," says one official. "We are not going to reinvade Iraq."

Vice President Joe Biden makes a phone call on a train at Union Station in Washington, DC. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 26 comments

Winston_Smith

Dec 26, 2011 10:58 AM CST

Republicans like to complain endlessly about the money lost on Solyndra, but this adventure--which, make no mistake about it, we did for the sake of "cheap" energy--cost us more than thousands of Solyndras. And it probably didn't gain us any more benefit.

stevsie

Dec 25, 2011 7:25 PM CST

God I hope nothing ever happens to Obama with this clown waiting in the wings.

nick

Dec 25, 2011 6:30 PM CST

George the Lesser-- following through on the advice he received from conversations his Heavenly Father-- made the God-awful decision to invade Iraq. If the country is stupid, or ill-informed,enough to elect another Republican president in 2012, it is almost a certainty that God will also advise that president to go to war with Iran. Simple as that, another Christian-Muslin war is created, And then, eight years later, it will take another Obama-type president the get our troops out of Iran. Does anyone notice a trend here?

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Biden Tells Iraqis to Mend Fences —Like, Now

VP urges Maliki to strengthen coalition with Kurds, Sunnis

OTHER STORIES ON OUR RADAR

Iraq • Joe Biden • sectarian violence • Nouri al-Maliki • Kurds • Sunnis

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VP: Maliki Pushing Iraq Toward Sectarian War

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