VP Biden (L), US Ambassador Hill (C) and Gen. Odierno at a U.S. military base near Baghdad, Iraq, 03 Jul 2009Vice President Joe Biden is visiting U.S. soldiers and Iraqi politicalleaders on the first trip by a top U.S. leader to Iraq since the June30 withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraqi towns and cities. Biden'strip comes amid a surge of insurgent attacks that are testing thecapabilities of Iraqi forces.  

The vice president toldreporters in Baghdad that the Obama administration was dealing withIraq both on the political and the military fronts, and that he waspushing for a political solution to the long-standing conflict, toaccompany the drawdown of U.S. troops.

"The president wants tofocus within the White House on the implementation of ouradministration's plan to both draw down troops in Iraq which is underway the first stage," Biden said, "but also the second piece of thatplan is for there to be a combination of a political settlement amongall the factions within Iraq. There's unresolved issues from boundarydisputes to the oil law and my job is to try to help accommodate thatregion and those agreements."

More US pullbacks planned

Iraqi officials have been speakingwith new authority and confidence since the June 30 U.S. pullback fromIraqi towns and cities. Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammedal-Askari looks ahead, optimistically, to the next stage of U.S.pullbacks.

He says that the first phase of the U.S. pulloutended with the U.S. handing over 168 bases and positions to Iraqiforces. Now, he adds, the next phase will include the drawdown of U.S.forces from 135,000 to 35,000, leading up to the final withdrawal bythe end of 2011.

Spike in violence

Despite the self-assurance of Iraqi leaders,many political issues remain. Al Qaida in Iraq has been dealt a severeblow in recent months, but other insurgent groups continue to operate.

Al-Rafidein TV played more than a half dozen videos of alleged attacksagainst U.S. troops, Friday, showering praise on various insurgentgroups.

People gather at the site of a car bomb attack in Kirkuk, Iraq, Tuesday, 30 June 2009The vice president's visit coincides with a spike inviolence, with several bloody bombings in Baghdad and a car bomb inKirkuk. Tuesday, more than 30 people were killed by a powerful car bombin Kirkuk.

Conflicts between the mostly Shi'ite government ofPrime Minister al-Maliki and the hardline Sunni opposition continue.Key Sunni groups accused the prime minister of cheating during theJanuary elections and complain regularly that he awards top posts toShi'ites.

Some Sunnis are also not pleased by Kurdish autonomyin the north, and the prospect of the ethnically divided, oil rich cityof Kirkuk going to the Kurds, has many worried.

Hardline sunniMP Iyad Samaraie told Al-Baghdadia TV that "everything the Kurds havedone, including their constitution, since the U.S.-led invasion … shouldbe considered null and void."

Dialogue encouraged

Middle East analyst Khattar AbouDiab, who is a professor at the University of Paris III, says that VicePresident Biden is aiming to push Iraqi politicians to engage in moredialogue and less violence.

He says that we're now in atransition phase, following the U.S. pullout from Iraqi cities, andefforts are being made to normalize ties with Iraq. The French primeminister's visit, Thursday, he notes, is part of that normalcy,including economic ties …. visit, he argues, has a largervista: he's trying to consolidate the political dialogue now under way,to normalize the situation further before the final US pullout, andhe's still facing obstacles of violence, regional meddling, and thesituation in Kirkuk. Negotiations are the only way around theseproblems, he concludes.

June was the bloodiest month in the lasteight in terms of Iraqi civilian casualties, according to Iraqigovernment figures, and both northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul remainpowderkegs.