Getting your player ready...
BAGHDAD — Vice President Joe Biden brought Washington’s concerns about Iraqi political tensions directly to leaders in Baghdad on Friday, but officials appeared to leave little room for outside mediation over whether to ban hundreds of election candidates for suspected links to Saddam Hussein’s regime.
The United States fears the blacklist — now more than 500 candidates and expected to grow — could set back reconciliation efforts between the majority Shiites and the Sunnis in parliamentary elections March 7.
Iraq’s presidential spokesman, Nasser al-Ani, said Iraq was willing to listen to suggestions on easing the political standoff caused by the blacklist, but he noted: “Nobody can interfere in Iraqi affairs . . . Biden or others.”
