Today.. Al-Sudani has breakfast with Blinken and meets with Biden at noon

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[size=52]Today.. Al-Sudani has breakfast with Blinken and meets with Biden at noon[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad/ Tamim Al-Hassan[/size]
[size=45]Most expectations were that Iran would postpone the attack on Israel for another week until the return of Muhammad al-Sudani, the Iraqi Prime Minister, from Washington. Yesterday, Al-Sudani arrived in the American capital on a visit that is supposed to continue until the end of the week, and will meet President Joe Biden on Monday.[/size]
[size=45]On the eve of the Prime Minister's plane landing at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland near Washington, DC, Tehran sent hundreds of marches and missiles towards Israel, with the participation of Iraqi factions.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Sudani had revealed for the first time, before leaving Baghdad, in an article in an American magazine, his desire to end the presence of armed factions.[/size]
[size=45]A political advisor told Al-Mada: “It seems that the Iranian attack that occurred on Saturday evening was intentionally timed to influence the Sudanese visit.”[/size]
[size=45]Baghdad closed its airspace, before reopening it again at dawn yesterday, and pictures were transmitted of drones passing over Iraqi cities, such as Karbala, Wasit, and Babil.[/size]
[size=45]Some information indicated that about 25 drones had been launched from Iraqi territory towards Israel.[/size]
[size=45]On the other hand, Iran said that half of the missiles fired at Israel during the night from Saturday to Sunday successfully hit their targets.[/size]
[size=45]During the penultimate night, Iran launched the first direct attack on Israel in its history, using drones and missiles. This came in response to the Iranian consulate in Damascus being exposed at the beginning of this month to an Israeli missile attack that resulted in the killing of 7 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, including General Mohammad Reza Zahedi.[/size]
[size=45]The political advisor in one of the Shiite parties, who requested that his name not be published, points out that “the participation of factions in the Iranian attack may cause Sudanese’s meetings with American officials to falter.”[/size]
[size=45]In the last week before the visit, the factions had tried to implicate Iraq in the war between Iran and Israel.[/size]
[size=45]The Chief of Staff of the Popular Mobilization Forces, Abdulaziz al-Muhammadawi, nicknamed “Abu Fadak,” said before Al-Sudani’s visit that they are “awaiting a decision from Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to respond to the Israeli bombing.”[/size]
[size=45]The political advisor expects that if the United States responds to the Iranian attack, “the truce in Iraq will be violated because the response will affect factions inside the country that participated in the recent night of the missiles.”[/size]
[size=45]The US President warned Iran against launching any attack targeting Israel. He said: “The United States is committed to supporting and defending Israel.” Iraqi factions claimed that they had attacked military institutions, oil installations, and airports in Israel 25 times since the last truce with the American forces took effect, “according to statistics conducted by Al-Mada.”[/size]
[size=45]The factions appeared to have been in a truce since last February, which was acknowledged for the first time by Qais Khazali, the leader of Asaib, a few days ago.[/size]
[size=45]Visit Sudanese[/size]
[size=45]In the context of the Prime Minister's visit to Washington, the latter's media office announced his arrival in Washington at dawn on Sunday.[/size]
[size=45]According to the agenda, a copy of which Al Mada obtained, the visit will continue until next Thursday. It appears that Al-Sudani avoided accompanying any official or representative from the “coordination framework” during the visit, and the name of any senior security official did not appear within the delegation.[/size]
[size=45]The main delegation consists of 57 personalities, including the ministers of planning, oil, and finance, and the governor of the Central Bank, in addition to 3 deputies in the Foreign Relations Committee, and 13 advisors.[/size]
[size=45]In addition to the Sudanese's personal companion, 4 bodyguards, 4 photographers, 3 audio and video technicians, and two of the Prime Minister's special hosts.[/size]
[size=45]In addition to the consultative committee, which consists of 18 individuals, 12 Iraqi journalists and representatives of satellite channels, and 22 crew members of the private plane that will transport the delegation.[/size]
[size=45]The delegation will also be allocated more than 100 rooms in more than one hotel, and 100 cars, including 60 rooms in the Willard InterContinental Washington Hotel, a luxurious historical hotel.[/size]
[size=45]According to the agenda, the Sudanese is supposed to meet on the first day of the visit (yesterday, Sunday) with Bert McGurk, the White House coordinator for Middle East affairs, and then a meeting with an elite of the Iraqi community in Washington.[/size]
[size=45]On Monday (today), Al-Sudani will meet for breakfast with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, before meeting with Biden at noon.[/size]
[size=45]The meeting will last one hour, and the meeting will be attended by the Minister of Oil and Planning, the Iraqi Ambassador to Washington, Nizar Al-Khairallah, the official of the Foreign Relations Office of the Kurdistan Government, Safin Dizay, and 3 of Sudanese’s advisors.[/size]
[size=45]After that, Al-Sudani will meet with Lloyd Austin, Minister of Defense, in the Pentagon building, where the security file is one of the most important aspects of the visit, according to what Baghdad says, and it is related to the withdrawal of coalition forces. However, according to the agenda, the name of any senior security official does not appear in the Austin meeting, except for the Deputy Secretary-General of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense and the military attaché.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Sudani's visit includes meetings with officials from the US Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security, the US Treasury, banking institutions, and investment companies.[/size]
[size=45]The Prime Minister will also meet with the Iraqi community in Houston before leaving the United States on Thursday evening.[/size]
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