Joe Biden in Baghdad to solve crisis

BAGHDAD

Joe Biden. AFP photo

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled to arrive in Baghdad yesterday to discuss the political crisis that has engulfed the country since the last U.S. soldier left the country.

According to the Anatolia news agency, Biden will meet with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) leader Masoud Barzani, as well as other top officials from the secular Iraqiya bloc and Shiite al-Sadr movement. Meanwhile, Iraqi lawmakers, aiming to unseat al-Maliki with a no-confidence vote, delivered their request to the president, and Talabani set up a commission to oversee the process. Lawmakers collected 172 votes, which is enough to take a no-confidence vote against al-Maliki. Also, election authorities in the KRG indefinitely postponed provincial polls scheduled for September because of laws restricting minority voting rights, Agence France-Presse reported. The delay further extends the period between Iraq’s nationwide provincial council elections in January 2009 and similar polls being conducted in the three-province Kurdish region.