USA meets Iraq Claudia Sonea

On Tuesday President Bush met Iraq's Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and tried to seem as peaceful as possible, although both of them had complaints against the other. The American President was unsatisfied by the stalling of action towards a political reconciliation, while the other one harshly criticized the killing of Iraqi civilians by private U.S. security contractors. These issues very debated in a diplomatic climate and both used polite language, because they are constraint of the interdependence that exists between them. There is no other appropriate candidate for the Iraq leadership and Maliki occupies the job due mostly to the White House support. Bush is under a lot of pressure from the democrats and from the Republicans, mostly because there are few results in bringing the rivals sects together in order to end the war and fulfill the benchmarks imposed by the US Congress and the process is very slow. Despite the fact that US President praised Maliki, he said there are problems to be solved, like the oil law that had been stalled in the Iraqi parliament, the need of political parties to make stride and make good law to pass; the necessity of preparing well the security forces. The latter problem is somewhat antagonist to the speech bush had in January when he said that until November Iraq will be capable to handle security in all 18 provinces. Also Maliki strarted to find excuses like the task is gigantic and then pointed out that Blackwater USA, a private contractor for USA that handles protection for State Department personnel in Iraq, killed 11 Iraqi civilians while escorting a diplomatic convoy in Baghdad. Bush offerd his sympathy and added that there will be a detailed investigation on the matter. Stephen Hadley, US National Security Adviser, stated that Maliki demanded that Iraq'a sovereignty to be respected, while Bush asked a list of suspected violations and noted that the United States has held accountable those responsible for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. At the U.N. General Assembly, Bush mentioned only passing Iraq and focused on Afghanistan and Lebanon underlining the fact that those that want democratic regimes must be supported. Also Zimbabwe, Sudan and Cuba's repressive regimes were criticized and Burma situation was debated while revealing that measures will be held against the military junta like US visa ban. Like Iraq, Iran was mentioned briefly among other countries like including Belarus, North Korea and Syria in order to avoid any other debates on the relations with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Like all other conference where Bush speaks, there were outside demonstrations, 400 people that oppose to the Iraq war and the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. More on this subject to come!

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070925/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush;_ylt=AoovCiBSBJgFhe3xdMzOVWqs0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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