Iraqi PM fears violations of sovereignty

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: AP

NEW YORK - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki walked a fine line Sunday: confronting his American backers over what he sees as violations of Iraq's sovereignty while stressing that his relations are rock solid with the country on whose support he still relies.

"Success is shared," he said in an interview with The Associated Press, referring to his deeply intertwined partnership with President Bush and the U.S. government. "God forbid, failure is also shared."

In a half-hour talk conducted in his Manhattan hotel suite, the 57-year-old politician from Iraq's Shiite heartland said it is unacceptable that U.S. security contractors would kill Iraqi civilians, a reference to a Sept. 16 shooting incident involving company Blackwater USA that left at least 11 Iraqis dead.

He also decried a recent arrest by U.S. forces of an Iranian citizen who had been invited into the country by Iraqi officials.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070924/ap_on_re_mi_ea/al_maliki_interview;_ylt=AgrRZwJjVDSLtATmVN4RFpus0NUE

[rurallib]

1. Surprised Maliki believed Bush.

Hey Nouri, W was just kidding. There is no sovereignty. That's just for the media to write about.

[olddad56]

2. He is beginnng to experience the the democracy that Bush promised.

The same kind we now expereince.

[struggle4progress]

3. Maliki insists Blackwater must pay for shootings

Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Monday September 24, 2007
The Guardian

The Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, showed an unexpected streak of stubbornness yesterday in his stand-off with the US over the Blackwater shootings, insisting that action had to be taken against the private security firm ...

Although the Iraqi government's immediate response was to order the expulsion of Blackwater, the guards are still in Iraq and resumed work on Friday. The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, has pleaded for them to remain and the row has turned into a test of Iraqi autonomy ...

A new point of tension emerged yesterday over the US military forces' arrest of an Iranian on Thursday. Mr Maliki, a Shia Muslim who has a good relationship with Tehran, said the man had been invited to Iraq. "The government of Iraq is an elected one and sovereign. When it gives a visa it is responsible for the visa. We consider the arrest ... of this individual who holds an Iraqi visa and a passport to be unacceptable."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2175662,00.html

[PSPS]

4. How can an occupied country be considered "sovereign?"

Oh, I see. The AP artfully calls us Miliki's "American backers." I'm sure that imprimatur goes a long way in Iraq.

[daleo]

5. What a headline

Iraqi PM fears violations of sovereignty