BAGHDAD, IRAQ - MARCH 24: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) meets with Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on March 24, 2013 in Baghdad. According to a U.S. official, Kerry will urge Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to make sure Iranian flights over Iraq do not carry arms and fighters to Syria. (Photo by Jason Reed - Pool/Getty Images)
Photo: Pool/2013 Getty Images
The new secretary of State made a surprise visit to Iraq to talk to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki about building consensus between the country’s Shiite-led government and the Kurdish and Sunni factions protesting against it, as well as the importance of halting Iran’s arms shipments to Syria via Iraqi airspace. Last year, Hillary Clinton got Iraq to pledge to at least inspect the contents of the Iranian planes, but U.S. officials believe that only two flights — which they say occur daily — have have been checked since then. After his meeting, Kerry told reporters that discussion of the shipments had been “very spirited.”
