By NNN-KUNA
Irbil (Iraq) : The current situation in Iraq requires commitment to the preservation of the rights of all citizens of diverse religious or racial backgrounds, said UK foreign office minister Kim Howells.
That diversity is guaranteed by the Iraqi constitution, said Howells who emphasized that his country looked with a kind eye at the people of the region of Kurdistan, being fully congnizant of the suffering they endured in the past.
For this reason and other ones, the UK keeps a military presence in Iraq for the foreseeable future, he said Friday at a joint press conference with President of Iraq’s Kurdistan region Massoud al-Barazani.
al-Barazani expressed Kurdistan’s uneasiness about being alloted only 17 percent of the budget of the nation, hoping that the percentage would be spiked after a national census had been completed.
The 17 percent allotment was agreed upon in a brokered political deal between the government in Baghdad and the provincial government of Kurdistan. He stressed the fact that Kurds were part and parcel of the Iraqi nation and that any budgetary policies propounded by the central government in Baghdad should well keep in view the interests of the Kurds.
He said a Kurdish delegation would soon leave for Baghdad to toss around ideas with government officials there. Al-Barazani said that the delegation would go at the behest of a request by prime minister Nouri al-Maliki who expressed his sincere desire to iron out any differences between his government and the Kurds.
Al-Barazani said he discussed with Howells an array of issues pertaining to the development of the political process in Iraq, and noted that the new Iraqi flag would be officially hoisted in the Kurdistan region within the next two days.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari will visit the Russian capital Moscow Monday for a round of talks between the two countries that will include the signing of an agreement to reduce the debt owed by Iraq.
Iraqi foreign ministry sources told KUNA that Zebari will discuss with the Russian side the issue of old Russian debt on Iraq and his country’s desire to broaden the economic relations with Russia, especially in the energy sphere.
According to the sources, Zebari will carry a message from Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that will include an invitation for Putin to visit Iraq.
The Russian debts on Iraq stand at about USD 10-13 billion.
In the continuing turmoil, a US Army force stormed a faculty building in Baghdad and arrested its security guards without providing any justification for the operation, spokesman of the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research Basil Al-Khatib told KUNA on Friday.
The force broke into the dentistry faculty building of al-Mustansyria University western Baghdad Friday afternoon and arrested three security guards, Al-Khatib said, adding that members of the force went through some of the faculty’s items and documents.
In related development, three Iraqi policemen were wounded on Friday in a booby-trapped car explosion that targeted their patrol vehicle in southwestern Kirkuk, northern Iraq.
Kirkuk police chief, Brigadier Sarhad Qader, told KUNA that the explosive-laden car blew up in Huwaija district, southwestern Kirkuk, targeting the patrol vehicle and wounding three policemen on board.
Moreover, Qader said Kirkuk police successfully executed a security operation in northeastern Kirkuk last night, adding that a weapons cache was found holding more than 2,000 mortar shells and other weaponry.