By NNN-KUNA
Washington : A high-level Iraqi delegation representing the renowned Anbar province arrived to Washington on Saturday and is scheduled to meet with US officials and congressional leaders next week.
Sources at the State Department, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told KUNA that the Iraqi delegation would meet with senior officials in the White House, State Department, and Department of Defense but it was still not confirmed yet if they would meet with President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.
After slipping into the hands of Al-Qaeda in Iraq with a tragic rate of violence, leaders from Anbar started in the last quarter of 2006 a reconciliation process with the Iraqi central government and with coalition forces in Iraq to counter the influence of Al-Qaeda and restore security and stability to their area. President Bush, in return, declared the troops surge in Iraq last January deploying 4,000 US marines in Anbar.
The delegation, selected by the US Embassy in Baghdad, includes the head of the Anbar Awakening Council Sheikh Ahmed Abu Risha, Anbar Governor Maamoun Sami Rashid Al-Awani, Ramadi Mayor Latif Obeid Eyadeh, Chairman of Anbar Provincial Council Abdul-Salam Abdullah and three other members of the council, in addition to the Iraqi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Rafeh Al-Issawi.
After their stop in Washington, Anbar leaders will head to New York, Vermont and Texas in a two-week visit that will last till November 10.
On Capitol Hill, Iraqi officials will meet Senator Blanche Lincoln, Senator Norm Coleman and Senator Lindsey Graham and will travel to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, before attending a reception in the Iraqi Embassy in Washington.
Anbar is largest geographical province in Iraq with a strategic location bordering Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, It is an overwhelmingly Arab Sunni area with Al-Ramadi as its capital city; a province with a success story that became the cornerstone for defending US strategy in Iraq.
Sheikh Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, Sheikh Ahmed’s younger brother who led what became to be known as the Anbar Awakening, was assassinated in a roadside bomb on September 13, ten days after meeting with Bush in Iraq.
The Iraqi delegation is scheduled to travel to Houston, Texas, to meet with former President George H.W. Bush, with Ambassador Edward Djerjian in Rice University, and with Mayor of Houston Bill White.
The delegates, in their first visit to the United States, will stop in New York for a private visit, before landing in Vermont to hold talks with Governor Jim Douglas in the State’s capital in Montpelier and with the Mayor of Burlington Bob Kiss.
This annual ritual, organized by the State Department’s bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, brings current or potential leaders in government, politics, media, education and other fields to the United States to interact with their counterparts. This program estimates that over 200 current and former heads of state and 1,500 cabinet-level ministers have participated so far in similar initiatives.