Maliki in US: Routine Visit or Facing Critics?

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – US arms sales to Iraq, security and the war in Syria will be at the center of talks during Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s upcoming trip to Washington, according to sources knowledgeable about the November 1 visit.

However, other sources note that Maliki’s critics also have been invited to Washington, indicating a more substantial discussion with the Shiite premier over security and his policies toward the country’s large Sunni and ethnic Kurdish minorities.

"The prime minister's visit is to strengthen relations between Iraq and the United States," Iraqi MP Khalid al-Assadi told Rudaw. "The issue of arming Iraq's armed forces and maintaining the strategic agreement between both countries will be among the topics of discussion on this visit," said Assadi, who is from Maliki's own State of Law coalition.

Assadi said that Maliki will also discuss the situation in Syria with America's top officials, among them President Barack Obama.

Other sources say that US Vice President Joseph Biden had in a telephone call invited Iraq's Sunni parliamentary speaker Osama Nujeifi to visit Washington in November. Also, the head of the Sunni-dominated Iraqiya bloc, Ayad Allawi, is already in the United States.

The sources say it is likely that the Americans want to have a hearing with Iraqi leaders, given the fact Nujeifi and Allawi are both strong critics of Maliki.

Unofficial Kurdish sources have also said that Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani has been invited to Washington.

The Iraqi prime minister has faced serious opposition from the country's Sunni and Kurdish groups since his re-election in 2010, and the Americans have expressed reservations about his close ties with neighboring Iran and Syria. But Maliki has managed to hold on so far.

Also of concern to the United States is the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, where daily bombings and sectarian Shiite-Sunni violence are on the rise.

This year, Iraq has registered some of its worst violence. The UN says more than 1,000 Iraqis were killed in July, making it the most violent month in years.

About 6,000 civilians have been killed and some 10,000 injured so far this year, with Baghdad province worst hit. This year’s death toll has already exceeded the number of deaths for all of 2012.