Iraq Rejects Syria’s Invitation for Talks

( LA Times ) - An offended Iraqi Governing Council refused a last-minute invitation from Syria to attend a regional meeting Saturday and declared it was rejecting in advance any decisions the group might make. The U.S.-appointed council — which said it considered the ambiguous invitation an affront to Iraq’s dignity — had wanted to attend the meeting of Iraqi border nations to complain about cross-border infiltration of militants, including from Syria.

Frankly it doesn’t matter whether or not this was diplomatically timed or not - the fact is discussions regarding cross border infiltration are important if the U.S. is interested in working with Iraq’s neighbours to better the security situation in Iraq. Note the use of the term “if the U.S. is interested” - the Iraqi Governing Council is not an independent government body, it is the U.S. that holds ultimate decision making authority in Iraq, and as such will be held ultimately be responsibility for those decisions.

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