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Sorry - this page has been removed. Obama to discuss fight against Isis with Iraqi prime minister
(2 months later)
This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason. The Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, and Barack Obama will discuss the fight against Islamic State at a White House meeting likely to be dominated by Iraqi requests for US arms and tension over Iran’s role on the battlefield.
In his first US trip since becoming prime minister, Abadi is expected to seek billions of dollars worth of drones and other US weapons to combat Isis, which seized swaths of northern and central Iraq last year.
For further information, please contact: Obama’s administration, which welcomed Abadi’s ascension after a tricky relationship with former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, may not agree to all of the requests.
Nonetheless, the high-profile meeting in the Oval Office is meant to convey a US seal of approval for a leader who has sought to be more inclusive than his predecessor in governing Iraq.
Obama, who came to power on the back of a promise to end the war in Iraq, is restricted by public aversion to US entanglement in another regional conflict and congressional constraints on his budget authority.
“The US is not going to be willing to step up in terms of major military support. It’s unclear that the US can budget for major aid,” said Anthony Cordesman, a foreign policy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
In August Obama authorised the first US air strikes in Iraq since the 2011 troop withdrawal. He has deployed about 3,000 US troops to train and advise Iraqi and Kurdish forces to fight Isis.
“If there are specific ideas that Prime Minister Abadi has for stepped-up assistance, then we’ll obviously consider them seriously,” the White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday.
“The goal is to continue the obviously deep coordination that already exists between the United States and Iraq. This is a partnership that the United States is obviously deeply invested in.”
Concern over Iran’s role in the fight against Isis may also feature in the talks. Iran-backed Shia militias have played a major role in battling the group, an al-Qaida offshoot that emerged from the chaos in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.
A senior US general told Congress last month that Washington made the withdrawal of the Shia militias a condition for its entry into Iraq’s battle to retake Tikrit from Isis.