By Xinhua
Cairo : Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi stressed here Thursday that the Iraqi people would decide on the future of their country.
Mahdi made the remarks after his talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak earlier in the day, Egypt’s official MENA news agency reported.
Iraq has for thousands of years been united and can continue to be so, Mahdi was quoted as saying, expressing the belief that it is totally up to the Iraqi people to decide on the country’s future.
“No outside party has the right to decide for us” and only the Iraqi project would be adopted in accordance with the constitution, he stressed.
About his talks with Mubarak, the Iraqi leader noted that the talks tackled the security and political situation in Iraq, the prospects of the return of a full Egyptian diplomatic mission to Baghdad.
Egypt didn’t send any envoy to Iraq since the country’s top envoy to Baghdad Ihab el-Sharif was kidnapped and then killed by an al-Qaida wing in Iraq in July, 2005.
Mahdi arrived here on Tuesday for talks with Egyptian leaders to seek Cairo support for Iraq’s political process to realize security and stability in the war-torn country.
Cairo was the first leg of his regional tour which will also take him to Syria and Jordan.