Ali al-Musawi, the adviser, told reporters in Baghdad that Dempsey paid a six-hour visit to Baghdad a day before and met a few Iraqi top officials, including Maliki.
He said Maliki during the meeting stressed the need to accelerate the arming of Iraqi forces in order to "help protect Iraq`s sovereignty," to which, "Dempsey expressed U.S.`s readiness to arm all the three Iraqi forces: the army, the navy and the air force."
Dempsey completed his whirlwind visit on the same day and left Baghdad on Tuesday night. He is the highest-ranking U.S. officials to visit Iraq since the last American combat troops departed from Iraq.
U.S. military forces pulled out completely from Iraq at the end of 2011, according to a security pact named Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed in late 2008 between Baghdad and Washington. (ANT)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
