US troops will leave Iraq this month with “honor and their heads held high”, US President Barack Obama said on Monday as he told Iraqi leaders that they had an enduring partner in the United States.
But after White House talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Obama also warned that other nations “must not interfere in Iraq” amid fears the US withdrawal will leave a vacuum which Iraq’s neighbors such as Iran could seek to exploit. “After nearly nine years, our war in Iraq ends this month,” Obama said after meeting with Maliki at the White House. “In coming days, the last American soldiers will cross the border out of Iraq with honor, and with their heads held high,” he added, although he said “history will judge” the decision by his predecessor president George W Bush to invade Iraq in 2003. Obama added “it was time to begin a new chapter in the history between our countries. A normal relationship between sovereign nations. An equal partnership based on mutual interests and mutual respect”.
On the other hand, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki publicly differed with President Barack Obama’s call for Syria’s Bashar al-Assad to step down Monday, saying he had no right to call for another leader’s ouster. Obama attributed the differences on Syria to “tactical disagreements” with Maliki and said he understood that the Iraqi leader’s position on the Syrian president was motivated out of a sincere concern for Iraqi interests. “I know that people must get their freedom and their will and democracy and equal citizenship. We are with these rights … because we have achieved that ourselves,” Maliki said at a joint press conference with Obama.“But I do not have the right to ask a president to abdicate. We cannot give ourselves this right,” said Maliki, adding that he hoped Syrians would achieve their aspirations without affecting Iraqi security.
US troops to leave Iraq with ‘heads held high’: Obama
