Obama vows lasting partnership with Iraq

US President Barack Obama has promised to maintain an enduring partnership with a "self-reliant" and sovereign Iraq as he met Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki at the White House on Monday less than three weeks before the last US troops are set to leave the country. 

Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

"After nearly nine years, our war in Iraq ends this month," Obama said, stressing it was time to make some new history between the United States and Iraq with an "equal partnership" of military, security and economic ties.

Without naming Iran, the US president also warned other countries not to meddle in Iraq’s affairs.

"Just as Iraq has pledged not to interfere in other nations, other nations must not interfere in Iraq," he said.

Maliki's visit symbolized the end of an episode that shown up deep divisions in American politics, damaged the US image abroad and sparked sectarian carnage while killing nearly 4,500 US troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

Obama's vow to end the war launched by his predecessor George W. Bush in 2003 underpinned his campaign for the presidency in 2008.

When he took office, more than 150,000 US troops were still in Iraq, but the president said the last of them would be home by the Christmas holidays .

Around 6,000 US troops remain stationed in Iraq on three bases, down from peaks of nearly 170,000 soldiers and 505 bases.

Some 157 uniformed US soldiers and up to 763 civilian contractors will remain to help train Iraqi forces under the authority of the sprawling US embassy in Baghdad.

Meanwhile, Tehran turned down Obama's request to return a sophisticated US drone, with a foreign ministry spokesman stressing the aircraft violated Iranian airspace.

Iran last week displayed on state television what it said was the drone. A lawmaker said the Islamic republic was unlocking the aircraft's software and was going to reverse-engineer the drone.

Obama on Monday acknowledged that Iran was holding the reconnaissance drone a bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel by saying: "We've asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond."