ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — US Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Erbil late Thursday night to meet with the Kurdish President Massoud Barzani following the political crisis which gripped Baghdad this week. Biden had already met with both Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi and Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri in Baghdad. The US Vice President said he and Abadi had spoken about the planned Mosul offensive but didn't comment on the political crisis in the Iraqi capital. Iraq has been facing one of its most serious political deadlocks in recent years with both the Shiite-led government and the Sunni-managed parliament in turmoil as the country is simultaneously facing a second fiscal deficit brought on by plummeting oil prices. “We sincerely appreciate the financial and military support the US has given our Peshmerga forces,” President Barzani told Biden in Erbil, "It has helped our forces in the fight ISIS [Islamic State]." Washington has announced it will allot $415 million to the Kurdish Peshmerga and is committing an additional 200 troops to the fight against the ISIS in Iraq. This was the third time Joe Biden traveled to the Kurdistan Region as Vice President of the United States. When he was a senator Biden visited Kurdistan region in 2006 and spoke at the Kurdish parliament and proposed a decentralized Iraq with self-ruling Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni areas “with a viable central government in Baghdad" which would be "in charge of common interests."
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