Iraq PM Invited to Meet with US President Biden at White House 

13 January 2023, Berlin: Prime Minister of Iraq Mohammed Shia al-Sudani speaks during a press conference. (dpa)
13 January 2023, Berlin: Prime Minister of Iraq Mohammed Shia al-Sudani speaks during a press conference. (dpa)
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Iraq PM Invited to Meet with US President Biden at White House 

13 January 2023, Berlin: Prime Minister of Iraq Mohammed Shia al-Sudani speaks during a press conference. (dpa)
13 January 2023, Berlin: Prime Minister of Iraq Mohammed Shia al-Sudani speaks during a press conference. (dpa)

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in New York on Monday and received an invitation from US President Joe Biden to visit the White House, a State Department spokesperson said.

Sudani, who is in New York to participate in the UN General Assembly, said a date for the official visit to Washington would be set at a later time, Iraqi state media reported.

Biden and Sudani have yet to meet since Sudani took office last year after being appointed by a coalition of parties, predominantly pro-Iran groups known as the Coordination Framework.

He has since walked a diplomatic tightrope between the US and Iran, two countries that in the past have fought out their rivalry on Iraqi soil.

Sudani and Blinken "renewed their commitment to continue strengthening the partnership between the two countries," the State Department spokesperson said.

Iraq has been a close partner of the US since Washington's 2003 invasion and both sides say they are trying to broaden their relationship from a near-singular focus on defense and counter-terrorism towards economic cooperation.

Blinken during the meeting "underscored US support" for the re-opening of a pipeline between Iraq's northern semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and Türkiye that has been shut since March.

Türkiye said last week the pipeline, which contributes about 0.5% of world oil supply, would be ready to resume operations soon, though it is unclear whether Baghdad and Ankara have agreed to the terms of a resumption of crude flows.

Blinken also "commended the Prime Minister’s commitment to judicial independence in Iraq’s recent conviction and sentencing of multiple individuals on terrorism charges in connection with the killing of US citizen Stephen Troell."

Iraq last month sentenced an Iranian man and four Iraqis to life in prison over Troell's November 2022 killing in a middle class neighborhood in central Baghdad.

Court officials did not name the defendants but said the four Iraqis were members of a Shiite militia.



Israeli Rescuers Say Eight Hurt in Bus Shooting in West Bank

Four people suffered bullet wounds, three of them serious, and four others were lightly injured by shards of glass, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service - AFP
Four people suffered bullet wounds, three of them serious, and four others were lightly injured by shards of glass, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service - AFP
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Israeli Rescuers Say Eight Hurt in Bus Shooting in West Bank

Four people suffered bullet wounds, three of them serious, and four others were lightly injured by shards of glass, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service - AFP
Four people suffered bullet wounds, three of them serious, and four others were lightly injured by shards of glass, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service - AFP

A shooting at a bus near an Israeli settlement injured at least eight people on Friday in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli rescue service said.

Violence in the West Bank has surged since the start of the Gaza war sparked by Hamas's attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, claimed responsibility for the attack, which left more than a dozen bullet holes in the windshield of the bus.

Four people suffered bullet wounds, three of them serious, and four others were lightly injured by shards of glass, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service.

Three of the injured were lying near the bus, conscious, when the rescuers arrived, a spokesman for MDA said, adding that those most seriously hurt were taken to hospital in a "stable condition".

"In this operation, one of our heroic fighters ambushed a number of Israeli soldiers and settlers inside a bus," Hamas's armed wing said in a statement, identifying the attacker as 46-year-old Samer Hussein, from a village near Nablus.

At least 24 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during military operations in the West Bank since the Gaza war began, Israeli official figures show.

During the same period, at least 778 Palestinians have been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers, according to an AFP count based on Palestinian official figures.

All of Israel's settlements in the West Bank, occupied since 1967, are considered illegal under international law.