Rice visits Iraq's Kirkuk to back UN reconciliation bid

[cal04]

Source: AFP

- US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday visited Kirkuk in northern Iraq on a mission to support UN reconciliation efforts in the ethnically fragmented oil city.

The visit came as Turkish troops entered northern Iraq to flush out separatist Kurdish rebels, Jabbar Yawar, spokesman for the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga security force, told AFP.

A correspondent travelling with Rice said the secretary of state, for security reasons, flew in on a previously unannounced visit to hold talks with the Kurdish, Sunni Arab, Christian, Turkmen and Shiite communities in the city.

"I look forward to talk with you about how the PRTs (provincial reconstruction teams) are helping to bring prosperity, creating jobs et bringing political reconciliation," Rice told their elected municipal officials.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071218/pl_afp/iraqusdiplomacyrice_071218104054

[Eugene]

1. Rice Points to Political Gains in Kirkuk

Source: Associated Press

Rice Points to Political Gains in Kirkuk

Tuesday December 18, 2007 12:01 PM

By ANNE GEARAN

AP Diplomatic Writer

BAGHDAD (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
made an unannounced visit Tuesday to Kirkuk in the
oil-rich Kurdish region, where the U.S. administration
has emphasized what it sees as new signs of
cooperation and progress, and then flew to the Iraqi
capital for meetings with national leaders.

At Rice's first stop in Kirkuk, she met with members of
a civilian-military reconstruction unit and with about
two-dozen provincial politicians of all stripes.

“It is an important province for the future of Iraq, for
a democratic Iraq, an Iraq that can be for all people,”
she said at the start of the meeting with the provincial
leaders.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7161284,00.html

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One can find signs of progress in Iraq if one looks
really, really hard for them.

[robbedvoter]

2. "oil city?" Send the oil tanker girl! better headlines write themselves...

[Javaman]

3. Timing is everything. Odd isn't it? that ricechecks visits basically

the iraqi oil hub of the north just as turkey enters the country with troops.

nope, no coordination here. Move along people, nothing to see here other then the usual stealing of a countries resources by the US.