Congress, Somali delegations to visit Iraq soon

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A delegation from the U.S. Congress and another from Somalia will visit Iraq soon, according to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry. “Mr. Samir Sumaida’ie, Ambassador of the Republic of Iraq in Washington met with Democratic Senator Mark Warner, a new member of the Senate and member of the Budget Committee and his advisers,” the ministry said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com news agency. “The ambassador congratulated Senator Warner for his assumption of this responsibility, and stated that Iraq is now more stable, despite the fact that the Iraqi government continues to deal with complex security, social, political and economic issues,” it added. “The ambassador said that sectarian violence in Iraq no longer exists, the instigators have no support, and there are still a number of political challenges facing the Iraqi government, but the important thing to notice is that these challenges are subject to dialogue away from the use of violence,” it also said. For his part, Senator Warner said he will visit Iraq with a number of members of the Senate at the end of May expressing his desire to open channels of dialogue and exchange of ideas on the situation in Iraq. Meanwhile, the Republic of Somalia expressed its gratitude to the Republic of Iraq for the noble brotherly stances taken by Iraq to Somalia in international assembly, this came during a visit by Mr. Abdul Qadir Sheikh Al-Amin Abu Bakr the Ambassador of the Republic of Somalia in Kuwait to the Iraqi charge d’affaires, Mr. Fadhel Hamad Khodeir, who told him he was appointed by the President of Somalia ,Sharif Sheikh Ahmed to provide the assurances and gratitude for Iraq’s noble stances in supporting the Somali government of national unity and the request in the Arab Summit recently held in Doha, according to another statement from the foreign ministry. “The Somali ambassador stated that the government is preparing to send a high-level Somali delegation to visit Iraq to express appreciation to the leaders of the Iraqi people,” it said. SH (S)/SR 1