This afternoon, Vice President Biden dropped by Deputy National Security Advisor Tony Blinken’s meeting with Fuad Hussein, Chief of Staff to Iraqi Kurdistan Regional President Masoud Barzani, and Falah Mustafa Bakir, Head of the Kurdistan Regional Government Foreign Relations Department. Both sides agreed on the importance of forming a new government in Iraq that will pull together all communities in Iraq and can effectively counter the serious and shared threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The Vice President affirmed strong U.S. support for Iraq in accordance with the Strategic Framework Agreement and emphasized the importance of the relationship between the United States and the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.