Talks with U.S. officials ‘constructive’, says al-Hashemi

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Vice President, Tareq al-Hashemi, said on Thursday that his talks with U.S. officials in Washington were candid, constructive and fruitful. Speaking to reporters after wrapping up his visit to the United States, al-Hashemi said “the visit came in response to an official invitation from U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden and i tried to have assertions from the American side regarding the U.S. commitment on the withdrawal agreement.” Al-Hashemi said that he found that Washington is keen and serious in its commitment and will pullout troops on time. “Talks tackled also shifting the U.S. interest from the military and security side to the civilian one and using the American capabilities in economic, financial, scientific ad technological fields to ease the Iraqi people’s suffering,” the vice president continued. “We support an urgent and complete withdrawal from Iraq, but this withdrawal should take place in a way does not create a security vacuum,” he explained. SH (P) 1