Iraq’s PM heads to WH to meet Obama

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki heads to the White house on Tuesday to meet U.S. President Barack Obama to discuss several issues, including parliamentary elections, according to CNN. ” Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki heads to the White House on Tuesday to meet President Barack Obama with the need for a timely election in Iraq dogging him,” the U.S. network said. Waves of destabilizing violence across the country are feared if the January 16 parliamentary election is delayed. “Any attempt to postpone the coming election will lead to a constitutional vacuum that this country will face, because the current Iraqi parliament will lose its legitimacy after January 16, 2010, which will cause a wave of chaos in this country that could ruin all that we’ve achieved,” al-Maliki has said. Al-Maliki is in Washington this week for a conference aimed at shifting the focus of the relationship between Iraq and the United States from the military to business. But he has been dogged by the election situation. SH (P) 1