US Secretary of State John Kerry pressed for Iraq’s help over the conflict in Syria during a surprise trip to Baghdad on Sunday amid claims of waning American clout barely a year after US troops left.
The one-day visit, the first to Iraq by a US secretary of state since April 2009, was focussed on concerns in Washington that months of protests in the country’s Sunni-majority provinces would give militant groups including Al-Qaeda room to manoeuvre.
It comes just days after the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq that ousted Saddam Hussein and sought to establish a stable democratic ally in the heart of the Middle East, but has instead left a country still grappling with deadly violence. Kerry met with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and was to hold talks with parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, to press Iraq on isolating the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
The one-day visit, the first to Iraq by a US secretary of state since April 2009, was focussed on concerns in Washington that months of protests in the country’s Sunni-majority provinces would give militant groups including Al-Qaeda room to manoeuvre.
It comes just days after the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq that ousted Saddam Hussein and sought to establish a stable democratic ally in the heart of the Middle East, but has instead left a country still grappling with deadly violence. Kerry met with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and was to hold talks with parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, to press Iraq on isolating the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.