Biden meets Iraqi counterpart

US Vice President Joe Biden met with Iraqi Vice President Khudheir Al-Khuzaie in New York, late Wednesday, discussing bilateral and regional issues. The two senior officials "discussed efforts by Iraqi leaders to reach agreement on important outstanding issues, including the passage of a new election law" as well as "Iraq's ongoing initiatives to strengthen relations with its Arab neighbors and Turkey," said a statement by the White House. Biden also offered his condolences to the Iraqi people after the recent wave of terror attacks, reaffirming "America's commitment to support Iraq in the shared fight against terrorism under the Strategic Framework Agreement." The SFA is "designed to help the Iraqi people stand on their own and reinforce Iraqi sovereignty, while protecting US interests in the Middle East", and also "normalizes the US-Iraqi relationship with strong economic, diplomatic, cultural, and security cooperation," according to the US Embassy in Baghdad. Both the US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power and Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari joined the vice presidents for the meeting.