Vice President Joe Biden met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad yesterday, and acknowledged in that meeting that he expects Iraq to have a relationship with Iran, but demanded that Iran not have the opportunity “to target U.S. personnel.”
Biden “made clear something that we’ve made clear repeatedly, which is, one, we fully expect Iraq to have a relationship with Iran,” a senior administration official in Baghdad told the American Forces Press Service (AFPS). “But what is not acceptable and not understood would be to in any way allow Iran to use our presence in Iraq as a target.”
The administration official said that “it is fully our expectation that the government of Iraq not allow Iraq to be used as an area to target U.S. personnel.”
The United States has agreed “not to use Iraq as a staging ground” for attacks on Iran, AFPS noted.
