Obama Meets With Iraqi Prime Minister
Baku, December 13 (AZERTAC). Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met with President Obama at the White House on Monday as the two leaders prepared for their respective countries to forge a more normal diplomatic relationship.
With the last U.S. troops scheduled to leave Iraq in the next few weeks, Obama and al-Maliki met to lay the groundwork for ongoing partnerships on security, trade, energy, and education, the New York Times reports. Among other agreements, Iraq has signed a deal to buy 18 F-16 fighter jets, with American pilots training Iraqis to fly them. Other details of how the United States will aid in Iraqi security in the years to come remain to be worked out.
The Obama administration is highlighting the talks as a marker of a kept promise to get the country's troops out of Iraq, the Washington Post notes. The number of American troops in the country is down to 6,000 from a high of 170,000 in 2007.
Meanwhile, the Times explains in a separate article, Obama is facing a dilemma over the U.S. military's last remaining detainee in Iraq. The Lebanese man is a suspected Hezbollah militant accused of coordinating a 2007 raid by Shiite extremists that left five American soldiers dead. The United States must decide whether to turn him over to the Iraqi government, which has a track record of acquitting former U.S. detainees, or find a way for troops to take him with them when they pull out.
Republicans are already calling for the detainee, Ali Musa Daqduq, to be taken to Guantanamo.
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