Stop Fundamentalism – President of Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Massoud Barzani, is scheduled to arrive for a visit to Washington next week, said a State Department spokesperson yesterday. During his visit, Barzani will meet with Vice President Biden and a number of State Department officials including Deputy Secretary Burns.
“Barzani will be visiting Washington next week at the invitation of Vice President Biden, extended to him last November during the Vice President’s visit to Iraq,” said the spokesperson to reporters at the department’s daily briefing.
Barzani has been speaking out in the Arab and Iraqi media during recent days, regarding the path the government of Iraq has taken in managing the country. In an interview with Al-Sharqiya TV, President Barzani told the Iraqi people that Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki intends to establish an “authoritarian, one-man rule” in that country.
“The killers of the Shiites are all around the office of the commander in chief of the armed forces,” accusing al-Maliki to be directly responsible for the continued bloodshed in Iraq.
In his speech last week, Barzani called on Iraq’s political parties to meet to find a solution to end Maliki’s control over the countries institutions. Earlier, last year, Iraq’s Vice President Traiq Al-Hashimi, whom the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki accused of participating in a terror plot against him, took refuge in the Kurdistan. He denies all allegations.
Barzani is currently in Sofia, Bulgaria on an official visit to discuss bilateral relations. He will leave Bulgaria directly to the United States, say Kurdish news agencies.
