Obama,
Iraq's Abadi to discuss Islamic State fight in White House meeting
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[April 14, 2015]
By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime
Minister Haidar al-Abadi and President Barack Obama will discuss the
fight against Islamic State on Tuesday at a White House meeting likely
to be dominated by Iraqi requests for U.S. arms and tension over Iran's
role on the battlefield.
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In his first U.S. trip since becoming prime minister, Abadi is
expected to seek billions of dollars in drones and other U.S.
weapons to combat Islamic State, which seized much of northern and
central Iraq last year.
Obama's administration, which welcomed Abadi's ascension after a
tricky relationship with former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, may
not agree to all of the requests.
Nonetheless, the high-profile meeting in the Oval Office is meant to
convey a U.S. stamp 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 U.S. entanglement in
another regional conflict and congressional constraints on his
budget authority.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Apr/14/images/ads/current/remington_daily_sda_022614.png) "The U.S. is not going to be willing to step up in terms of major
military support. It's unclear that the U.S. can budget for major
aid," said Anthony Cordesman, foreign policy expert at the Center
for Strategic & International Studies in Washington.
Obama in August authorized the first U.S. air strikes on Iraq since
the 2011 U.S. troop withdrawal and has deployed about 3,000 American
military forces to train and advise Iraqi and Kurdish forces to
fight Islamic State.
"If there are specific ideas that Prime Minister Abadi has for
stepped-up assistance, then we'll obviously consider them
seriously," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday.
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"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 Islamic State may also
feature in the Obama-Abadi talks. Iran-backed Shi'ite militias have
played a major role in battling the group, an al Qaeda offshoot that
emerged from the chaos in Iraq and neighboring Syria.
A senior U.S. general told Congress last month that the United
States conditioned its entry into Iraq's battle to retake Tikrit
from Islamic State on the withdrawal of the Shi'ite militias from
the clearing operation.
(Additional reporting by Julia Edwards; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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