French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner met leaders from Iraq's bitterly divided communities yesterday, as Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki urged Paris to support his embattled government.
Kouchner, the first French minister to visit Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003, which Paris vehemently opposed, kicked off a busy schedule in talks with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, officials said.
He was also due to meet Talabani's Sunni and Shiite vice presidents, Tareq al-Hashemi and Adel Abdel Mahdi, as well as Massud Barzani, president of Iraq's northern Kurdish region, a diplomatic source said.
Soon after his arrival in Baghdad on Sunday, Kouchner offered his country's help to try to end the turmoil engulfing Iraq, in a fresh sign of improving US-French ties, but made no concrete proposals of support.
Instead, he described his visit as being a kind of fact-finding tour designed to reconnect France with Iraqi leaders.
"We are ready to be useful, but the solution is in Iraqi hands, not in French hands," he told reporters after talks with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
He repeated the message in a late night meeting with al-Maliki, stressing that he planned to canvas the viewpoints of Iraqis across the political spectrum during his three-day visit.
Meanwhile, al-Maliki arrived in Damascus yesterday for talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on his first trip to the US' foe since taking office.
The beleaguered prime minister's visit follows a trip earlier this month to Syria's main regional ally Iran, countries both accused by the US of stoking the deadly violence engulfing Iraq.
Syria and Iraq only restored diplomatic ties last November, 26 years after they were broken under the ousted regime of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein over Syria's support for Iran in its eight-year war with Iraq.
The rapprochement paved the way for a week-long visit to Syria in January by Talabani, another formerly Damascus-based exile, who secured a promise from Assad to work to "eradicate terrorism."
It is Maliki's first visit to Syria since he became premier early last year, although he was based in Damascus in the 1990s when in exile during Saddam's rule.
Maliki, who is accompanied on the three-day visit by his ministers of oil, trade, the interior and water resources, is also due to meet Vice President Faruq al-Shara and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.
The Iraqi prime minister is also due to discuss the plight of the 1.5 million of his countrymen who have sought refuge in Syria from the bloodshed at home.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not