WASHINGTON
Vice President Joe Biden asked Iraqi Sunni leaders on Thursday to cooperate with Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to reconstruct the country’s security forces.
Biden attended a White House meeting with a delegation of Iraqi tribal and provincial leaders from Anbar Province.
"The vice president encouraged the delegates to continue to work constructively with Prime Minister Abadi and the Iraqi government on these important efforts to forge a durable security for Iraq," read a statement from Biden’s office.
The delegation included Anbar Gov. Sohaib Al-Rawi; Sheikh Abu Risha, President of the Iraq Awakening Council, and representatives of the Anbar Provincial Council and Sunni Endowment.
Anbar Province is a key region bordering Baghdad, and large swath of which is still under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, or ISIL.
Biden expressed his personal sympathies to Risha for a recent attack by ISIL on the Risha’s family compound.
Risha was a Sunni leader in the Al-Anbar province, and formerly led the movement of Sunni tribesmen known as the Anbar Salvation Council and is strictly against ISIL's discourse and actions.
