Iraqi ‘Soft Line’ on Syria Snubs Obama Policy in Nod to Iran
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When Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki spoke up about the government crackdown in Syria, it wasn’t the hard line that President Barack Obama would want from a U.S. ally in the Middle East.
“I hope that demonstrations in Syria will not be quelled by force,” Maliki told the Iraqi television al-Sumaria on Aug. 13, in his first public response to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s five-month crackdown on dissidents. Assad should “respond to the people’s demands and quicken the implementation of reforms.”