SOFA negotiations: Negroponte bypasses Maliki
First it is interesting to read that Donald Rumsfeld among the American delegation visits Sulaimaniya as reported on Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.
The American source refused to reveal further details about the visit and the newspaper said: “it is unknown if the Americans delegation will visit Baghdad or not”.
Contrary to what Al-Hakim’s TV channel report that Negroponte headed to Sulaimaniya to discuss Kirkuk crisis and the security progress. Aswat Al-Iraq report quotes Kurdish spokesman saying that the visit related to SOFA negotiations.
Strange is that Negroponte wants to discuss the security agreement with the Kurds and not with Al-Maliki who announced few days ago that he will observe the negotiations by himself or even to meet the negotiation team.
Trying to bypass Al-Maliki and the agreement? Iraqi MP AL-Najafi told Iraqpa:
The reason behind Negroponte’s visit is more pressure on the Iraqi government in order to sign the agreement, especially it comes days after statement made by Talabani on the possibility of lifting of protection for the Iraqi deposits in U.S. banks, about 50 billion dollar.
Al-Najafi statement agreed by Al-Sharqiya TV news headline saying: “Negroponte and Crocker put the final touches of SOFA with Talabani and Barzani.
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