Kerry urges Iraq to stop arms flow to Syria on Baghdad visit

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  Jason Reed / ReutersU.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad, Iraq, March 24, 2013. By Arshad Mohammed, ReutersBAGHDAD — Secretary of State John Kerry made an unannounced visit to  Iraq on Sunday and will urge Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to make sure Iranian  flights over Iraq do not carry arms and fighters to Syria, a U.S. official said.

Washington believes such flights and overland transfers take place  nearly every day and help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his efforts to  crush a two-year-old revolt against his rule, said the U.S. official, who spoke  on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. official said the Iraqi government  had inspected only two flights since last July and that Kerry would argue Iraq  did not deserve a role in talks about neighboring Syria's future unless it tried  to stop the suspected arms flow.

"He will be very direct with Prime  Minister Maliki about the importance of stopping the Iranian overflights and the  transits across the territory or, at a minimum, inspecting each of the flights,"  the official said.

Iraqi officials denied allowing the transfer of  weapons from Iran to Syria through Iraqi airspace. Abbas al-Bayati, a member of  the Security and Defense parliamentary committee, said: "We have done our duty  by randomly inspecting a number of Iranian flights and we did not find any  leaked or smuggled weapons."

"If the U.S. is keen to push us to do more  they have to give us the information that they have relating to this," he said.

More than a decade after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam  Hussein, Iraq still struggles with insurgents, sectarian friction and political  feuds among Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions who share power in the  government of Shi'ite premier Maliki.

Sunni Islamist insurgents linked  to al Qaeda and invigorated by the war next door in Syria - where Sunni rebels  are battling Assad, an ally of Shi'ite Iran - are regaining ground in Iraq and  have stepped up attacks on Shi'ite targets in recent months in an attempt to  provoke a wider sectarian confrontation.

Kerry plans to hold talks with  representatives of all three communities, including Maliki and Osama al-Nujaifi,  the Sunni speaker of parliament.

He will speak by telephone Massoud  Barzani, president of Iraq's Kurdish region, whose regional government is  pressing ahead with plans to build an oil pipeline to Turkey that Washington  fears could lead to the break-up of Iraq.

According to reporters at a  picture-taking session at the start of Kerry's talks with Maliki, the U.S.  diplomat appeared to joke that Hillary Clinton, his predecessor, had said Iraq  would do whatever Washington asked.

"The Secretary told me that you're  going to do everything that I say," Kerry said, according to the reporters.

"We won't do it," Maliki, also joking, replied, the reporters said.

SUICIDE BLASTS

In his talks with Maliki, Kerry will also ask the  Iraqi prime minister and his cabinet to reconsider a decision to postpone local  elections in two Sunni-majority provinces, Anbar and Nineveh, the U.S. official  said.

The Iraqi cabinet last week postponed the votes, which were due on  April 20, for up to six months because of threats to electoral workers and  violence there - a step Washington believes will only increase tensions.

While violence has fallen from the height of the sectarian slaughter  that killed tens of thousands in 2006-2007, insurgents have carried out at least  one major attack a month since U.S. forces left. Bombings and killings still  happen daily, often aimed at Shi'ite areas and local security forces.

More than a dozen car bombs and suicide blasts tore through Shi'ite  Muslim districts in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and other areas on Tuesday,  killing nearly 60 people on the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that  ousted Saddam.

Further complicating security, thousands of Sunni  protesters have rallied in Anbar against Maliki, whose Shi'ite-led government  they accuse of marginalizing their minority sect since the fall of Sunni  strongman Saddam.

In his talks with Nujaifi, the speaker of the  parliament who has advocated that his fellow Sunnis stay out of the cabinet,  Kerry will urge him to deal with Maliki despite Sunni mistrust of the Shi'ite  prime minister, the official said.

"It's far preferable for him to  engage, no matter what he thinks of Maliki," the U.S. official said.

Additional reporting by Suadad al-Salhy

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