UAE foreign minister on landmark visit to Iraq

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

BAGHDAD (AFP) — The Emirati foreign minister met Iraqi leaders on Thursday on the first visit to the violence-wracked country by a chief diplomat from a Arab country in the Gulf since the 2003 US invasion.

The UAE's Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nayhan met his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari briefly before going into talks with President Jalal Talabani.

"Sheikh Abdullah's visit to Baghdad is the first by a foreign minister from any Gulf Cooperation Council country," an Emirati official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

The GCC groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia alongside the United Arab Emirates.

The United States has been pressing its oil-rich allies in the Gulf to show more support for the Iraqi government by sending ambassadors to...