Samarraie meets Pelosi to discuss Baghdad-Washington relations

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Parliament Speaker Iyad al-Samarraie met on Sunday with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi at his office in Baghdad to discuss future relations between the two countries, a parliament’s media source said on Sunday. “Samarraie and Pelosi are to hold a joint press conference later in the day,” the source told IraqiNews.com news agency. Pelosi had arrived in Baghdad for a surprise visit to meet with senior Iraqi officials. She paid the visit as a date fixed for the U.S. withdrawal from Iraqi cities, late June, is drawing near. Pelosi’s visit to Iraq is her third. The two previous ones were on January 26, 2007 and May 17, 2008. Pelosi, the first woman ever to occupy the post of U.S. House speaker, was one of 126 Democrats inside the House to vote against the use of force in Iraq in 2002. However, she later voted in favor of financing the war. AmR (P) 1