Baghdad: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Baghdad today for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and other top officials.
He is also due to meet President Fuad Masum, Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi in the course of his visit to Baghdad. The UN mission in Iraq announced Ban’s arrival on Twitter but provided no details of the agenda of the talks or any other informatiiom whatsoever.
The Iraqi forces are battling to retake the city of Tikrit, the government’s largest military operation yet against the Islamic State jihadist group for quite some time now. The fact that Baghdad is receiving military assistance from both the United States and Iran however has created tensions, internally and internationally as well.Ban flew in from Egypt, where he attended an Arab League summit in Sharm el-Sheikh dominated by Saudi-led military action against Yemen’s Huthi Shiite rebels.
He is further expected to travel on to Kuwait for a meeting of international donors on Tuesday which has been called to address a massive funding gap in the response to the conflict in Syria.(AFP)
