Iraq: Maliki meets Obama

Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki met US President Barack Obama on 1 November, in a private meeting at the White House. At a joint press conference afterwards, Obama said they had had a wide-ranging discussion “about economic issues, regional issues and security issues”. “Much of our discussion centred on the fact that, although Iraq has made significant progress in areas like oil production and a range of other reforms that have taken place, unfortunately, Al-Qaeda has still been active and has grown more active recently.”