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President Bush Meets with President
Barzani of the Kurdistan Regional Government
30.10.2008
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October
30, 2008
Washington D.C., Oval Office,
PRESIDENT BUSH: President Barzani, welcome back to
the Oval Office. It's been a while since we have
seen each other,www.ekurd.net
but we have talked on
the phone quite frequently -- and the reason why is
because you've played a very instrumental part in
the development of a free Iraq. And I thank you for
your leadership and I thank you for your personal
friendship.
We had a discussion today on several major topics.
We talked about the progress on the election law and
on the hydrocarbon law, but we also talked about the
status of forces agreement, called the SOFA.
President Barzani has been a very strong advocate of
the Iraqi government passing the SOFA, and I
appreciate that.
I informed the President we received amendments
today from the government. We're analyzing those
amendments. We obviously want to be helpful and
constructive without undermining basic principles.
And I remain very hopeful and confident that the
SOFA will get passed. And Mr. President,www.ekurd.net
you get a lot of credit
for your leadership on that issue.
So I'm proud to welcome you back here. Again, I
thank you very much for your courage and your
leadership. |
President George W. Bush welcomes Kurdistan Regional
Government President Massoud Barzani to the Oval
Office, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008, at the White
House. White House photo by Eric Draper |
PRESIDENT BARZANI: (As
translated.) Thank you very much, Mr. President.
It's good that there has been another opportunity
for us to visit with you again. I am here to convey
the gratitude of the Iraqi people in general and the
people of Kurdistan, in particular, for the brave
decision that you've made to rid us of this
dictatorship.
We are very grateful for all the brave souls, women
and men in uniform, who gave their dear lives in the
process. And we are very grateful to the American
people and to you, Mr. President, for this
sacrifice.
And despite the fact that there remain some major
problems, we have also to look at all the big
achievements that have been made thus far. Let's
look at the elections and the constitution that has
been ratified. So these are major achievements that
we are proud of. And we are determined to solve all
the problems that still exist,www.ekurd.net
according to the
constitution.
And in terms of SOFA, we do believe that it is in
the interest of the Iraqi government, it's in the
interest of this country, and we have been and we
will continue to support it and support its
ratification.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, sir.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
whitehouse gov
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