ياشاسين آذربايجان - Long live Azerbaijan

.

Muqtada al-Sadr, a prominent Iraqi Shia leader, has held talks with Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, on the situation in Iraq, a government official has said. Al-Sadr has not been seen in public since 2007 and was believed to have been in Iran before his surprise visit to Ankara

---

---

Muqtada al-Sadr, a prominent Iraqi Shia leader, has held talks with Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, on the situation in Iraq, a government official has said.

Al-Sadr has not been seen in public since 2007 and was believed to have been in Iran before his surprise visit to Ankara, the Turkish capital, on Friday.

“The political process is increasingly normalised in Iraq … [Al-Sadr] is here for political consultations with the Turkish authorities on these matters,” a foreign ministry official said.

Al-Sadr also met Abdullah Gul, the Turkish president, in the presence of Murat Ozcelik, Turkey’s special envoy to Iraq.

Strained ties

On Thursday, Turkey’s Anatolia news agency cited unnamed diplomatic sources as saying that al-Sadr’s visit was aimed at “holding consultations on the political process in Iraq”.

He was expected to travel to Istanbul after his talks with Turkish officials in Ankara.

Ties have been strained between Ankara and Baghdad over Kurdish fighters based in northern Iraq.

In March, Gul was the first Turkish head of state to visit Iraq in 33 years in an effort to improve relations.

Turkey has made it a foreign policy priority to improve ties with its neighbours and make efforts to ease tensions in the Middle East.

Turkey recently hosted indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria and helped negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza.

Al-Sadr is the most prominent Shia opponent of the US military presence in Iraq.

His popularity grew in Iraq in the months after the US-led invasion of 2003. His allies won enough seats in Iraq’s January 31 provincial elections to emerge as a key political player.

But he has been out of sight following a public appearance at an Iraqi mosque in June 2007 and has since issued statements through senior aides and spokesmen.aljazeera

, Voice of a Nation

---

Share This | Print