US Vice President Dick Cheney made a surprise visit to Baghdad in a new
bid to press Iraqi leaders to double efforts to achieve reconciliation among
rival factions.
During his visit, Cheney met Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani, Sunni and Shiite vice presidents, and other government
and political leaders.
Cheney said that "we talked about a way ahead in terms of our mutual
interests" and Iraq's leaders seemed to "recognize it's in their interests as
well as ours to make progress on the political front."
Al-Maliki said he discussed with Cheney about challenges his country was
facing and achievements that have been made.
"The meeting with the vice president paved a foundation for practical steps
to support our efforts working on both the security front as well as the
domestic political issues," he said.
Cheney also met the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and the
new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, to learn the latest developments in
Iraq.
Crocker told reporters that Cheney would request Iraqi lawmakers not to take
the planned two-month summer holiday. Cheney also said that Iraqi lawmakers
realized the sense of urgency.
Analysts said that Cheney's visits was at a critical time for Iraq. Months
after the surge of U.S. troops, which was seen to buy time and space for Iraqi
politicians to achieve reconciliation, there are still no tangible signs of
progress.
Amid mounting domestic pressure, the Bush administration is increasingly
eager to push Iraqi politicians to achieve a series of benchmarks, such as
passing a new law dividing oil revenues, and allow members of deposed dictator
Saddam Hussein's Baath party to hold government jobs.
Some people pointed out that Cheney's visit came days after U.S. Defense
Secretary Robert Gates' visit, which also showed U.S. authorities' impatience.
Cheney's visit came on the same day as a suicide truck bomb struck the
building of a Kurdish regional ministry in Iraq's northern city of Arbil,
killing 20 people and injuring 70 others.
"A suicide bomber blew up a truck loaded with some 800 km of TNT on a busy
main road outside the Kurdish regional Interior Ministry in the center of the
city at about 8:00 a.m. (0400 GMT),"a source from the city police said, citing
report from the Kurdish regional Health Ministry.
"Latest report said that 20 people were killed and 70 others injured,
including interior ministry employees," the source, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, told Xinhua by telephone.
The powerful blast destroyed the front part of the ministry building and
damaged nearby buildings, including the regional parliament building, according
to the source.
Arbil, 350 km north of Baghdad, is the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan autonomous
region. The deadly bombing shows that the ruthless violence is not contained in
Baghdad and central Iraq, it can penetrate the Kurdish region, which has been
relatively calm.