TURKEY: Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi meets with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyp Erdogab in Ankara

The Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi has met with the Turkish Prime Minister, Tayyp Erdogab, only hours after Erdogan held talks with the Iranian Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki. Iraqi vice president Adel Abdul Mahdi arrived in Ankara on Tuesday (February 20) and met with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. Abdul Mahdi, who is on a two-day visit to Turkey, held talks with Erdogan, just hours after the Turkish prime minister received the Iranian Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki. The talks between Abdul Mahdi and Erdogan focused on stability in the region and the violence that is engulfing Iraq. Turkey is worried that growing sectarianism in Iraq, its eastern neighbour, will cause the country to be split into three separate states. Ankara, a NATO ally of the United States, is especially worried about the possible emergence of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq that could stoke separatism among its own large Kurdish population in southeast Turkey. Abdul Mahdi's party, the powerful Shi'ite Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, was one of the exiled opposition parties consulted by Washington as it planned the invasion of Iraq. Its leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim is a key figure behind the U.S.-backed national unity government.

ITN Source | February 21, 2007

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