i thought that maliki's visit to iran was supposed to be about him giving stern warnings to tehran not to meddle in iraq's internal affairs (because the bush administration bizarrely thinks that telling the iranian leadership that themselves is tantamount to surrender, but having their guy in baghdad pass along the message for them is completely different). but instead of threatening the iranians to mollify the u.s., he's been trying to mollify iran about security pact that maliki is currently negotiating with the u.s.
it just goes to show who really pulls the strings in iraq. iran's (well founded) fear that permanent bases in iraq will just be used to attack iran, is yet another reason why the a binding pact is not going to happen. the u.s. can force through some non-binding face-saving agreement. but anything binding requires ratification. and anything that requires ratification is doomed to fail. the fact that iran exerts a major influence on the u.s.-backed maliki government and doesn't want the agreement to happen either, is just another reason that it's not going to go anywhere.
