Iraq’s Foreign Minister confers with Jeffrey Feltman on impeding U.S. withdrawal

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq’s Foreign Minister, Hoshiar Zibary, has conferred in Baghdad on Saturday with visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs , Jeffrey Feltman, on the withdrawal of the U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of the current year, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry’s Web site reported on Saturday.   “Both sides have discussed Iraqi-American relations after the withdrawal of the U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of 2011 and the conditions and activity of the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Iraq,” the site reported. Feltman’s accompanying delegation had attended the meeting, together with the U.S. Ambassador to Baghdad, James Jeffrey, the website noted.   Zibary, the site added, had “expressed the Iraqi government’s keenness to render all necessary prerequisites for the activity of the said U.S. missions and help them to achieve their duties in the best form, being part of the Strategic Agreement for Friendship & Cooperation between the two countries.”   It also said that the talks had also covered “the current developments of the political circumstances in a number of the sisterly Arab states.”   SKH (TI)/SR 880