Iraqi Legislature calls for uniting positions in prelude of U.S. Vice-President Biden’s visit for Iraq

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A Member of the Iraqi Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee has called on Iraq ’s political leaders to unite their positions, in prelude for the scheduled visit by the U.S. Vice-President, Joe Biden for Iraq .   “There must be a united position of the leaders of the Iraqi political forces to discuss with the U.S. Vice-President, Joe Biden, during his future visit for Iraq ,” Legislature Hussein Khudhier al-Hamdani told IraqiNews.com news agency.   Hamdani said: “We must understand the scope of readiness of the Iraqi forces of our forces, through the position of Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who must announce a clear and official attitude for such readiness, in order to help the political forces give an opinion that won’t undermine Iraq ’s future interests.”   He called on the political leaders to “give higher attention for Iraq’s interests than selfish interests, because the people, from southern Iraq’s Basra to northern Iraq’s Mosul cities, have demanded the departure of the American forces from Iraq; that is why there must be a real convincement by those leaders towards the departure of the U.S. forces or the extension of their presence in the country.”   The Security Agreement, signed between Baghdad and Washington at the end of 2008, calls on the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of next year, whilst the American combat troops had already withdrawn from Iraqi cities, towns and villages on June 30, 2009, according to that agreement.   On the other hand, the Iraqi political Writer and Analyst, Hadi Jallu Mar’e, has said that the United States understands now that “the Iranian existence in Iraq is increasing and Tehran may control the dossier of power in Baghdad in the forthcoming few months, especially after the U.S. withdrawal, that shall leave a huge vacuum.”   “ Iraq ’s division has become the most possible solution and Biden’s project must be achieved in the forthcoming phase, because the United States can’t keep a fully-united Iraq ,” Mar’e said, adding: “I believe that Iraq ’s division according to the American Federalism shall be more beneficial for Washington in the forthcoming phase.”   SKH (FT) 460