Former Iraqi Premier Allawi arrives in Saudi Arabia

[sabra]

http://www.aswataliraq.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=39290&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Former Iraqi Premier Allawi arrives in Saudi Arabia

Riyadh, March 13, (VOI) - Former Iraqi Premier Iyad Allawi arrived on Tuesday in Riyadh on an official visit to Saudi Arabia, an official source said.

Iyad Allawi, former Iraqi Prime Minister and head of the secular Iraqi National parliamentary bloc, arrived on Tuesday in the Saudi capital Riyadh on an official visit to discuss with officials the latest developments in Iraq, an official source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

Allawi's visit coincides with presence of Iraq’s Kurdistan’s president, Massoud al-Barazani, also currently on a visit to Riyadh.

[Kagemusha]

1. I'm trying to keep score here...

Didn't Allawi visit Kurdistan recently and talk to Barazani, with Khalilzad going with him?

Curiouser and curiouser.

[sabra]

2. correct - he (and his party) are making the rounds

but reports indicate he doesn't have the seats (yet) to really do anything...

[Kagemusha]

3. So he wants the Saudi royals to lean on the Iraqi Arab Sunnis more?

Good luck with pitting 40% of the population against the remaining 60% Shiite majority.

[maddezmom]

4. yet

something is cooking with that guy

[sabra]

5. no doubt - according to a report last month Condi has made contact

http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?selected=Situation%20Reports&sitrep=1&id=284541

Iraq: U.S. Would Consider Accord Front Plan

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is willing to consider an alternative plan proposed by the Iraqi Accord Front of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi if the current security plan in Iraq fails, independent Saudi-owned newspaper Al Hayat reported Feb. 19. Besides changing the Cabinet and focusing on political and economic solutions, the proposal focuses on expanding the multinational force to include troops from Islamic and Arab countries. The plan would also include the formation of a committee comprising the ministers of defense, justice, interior and national security to handle all security-related matters.

[maddezmom]

6. amazing what a democratic and sovereign nation Iraq has turned out to be

:sarcasm:

[maddezmom]

7. Iraqi leader fears ouster over oil money

Iraqi leader fears ouster over oil money
STEVEN R. HURST
Associated Press
BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki fears the Americans will torpedo his government if parliament does not pass a law to fairly divvy up the country's oil wealth among Iraqis by the end of June, close associates of the leader told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

~snip~

Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a Shiite Muslim, flew to the Saudi capital Tuesday, a day after the arrival there of Masoud Barzani, leader of Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdish region. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims.

"Allawi is there to enlist support for a new political front that rises above sectarian structures now in place," the former prime minister's spokesman, Izzat al-Shahbandar, told the AP.

Barzani spokesman Abdul-Khaleq Zanganah said the two Iraqis met in Kurdistan before the trip for talks on forming a "national front to take over for the political bloc now supporting al-Maliki."

It appears certain the United States was informed about the Allawi and Barzani opening to the Saudis, who are deeply concerned that al-Maliki could become a puppet of Iran, the Shiite theocracy on Iraq's eastern border they view as a threat to the region's stability.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/16896937.htm