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Skriven 2007-03-15 23:31:34 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0703151) for Thu, 2007 Mar 15
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President Bush Meets with Vice President Adil Abd Al-Mahdi of Iraq
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary March 15, 2007

President Bush Meets with Vice President Adil Abd Al-Mahdi of Iraq The Oval
Office

˙ Video (Windows) ˙˙Presidential Remarks
˙˙Audio

˙˙˙˙˙ Renewal in Iraq

10:55 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: It is such an honor to welcome the Vice President of a free
Iraq to the Oval Office.

Mr. Vice President, I appreciate your courage. I don't know if the citizens
of my country know, but the other day, a killer tried to take your life.
And fortunately, you sit here, and you speak with enthusiasm and optimism
about the future of your country.

One of the reasons why -- the main reason why I've reinforced our troops in
Iraq is to give leaders such as yourself the opportunity to do the hard
work of reconciliation. I appreciate very much the progress that you're
making. I know it's hard work. It's hard work to overcome distrust that has
built up over the years because your country was ruled by a tyrant that
created distrust amongst people.

But you, Mr. Vice President, are showing strong vision, and a vision of
peace and reconciliation. And I welcome you to the Oval Office. I thank you
for your courage, and I thank you for the conversation we've had.

VICE PRESIDENT ABD AL-MAHDI: Thank you. Thank you, President. Thank you for
receiving me, and the present occasion to thank you personally, and to
thank the American people for all the support you've given to Iraq, the
sacrifices. Also, I visited yesterday some soldiers in the hospital, and I
saw their high spirit they had, really, better morale than I had, talking
about their mission.

We are working hard together. Our security plan is marking some points. We
are not finished, but we are doing better than expected in this plan. This
will not solve the whole problem; the reconciliation process will take our
political agenda forward. We are working on many issues; the hydrocarbon
bill, which we approved in the Cabinet. We are working on a
deBaathification bill and it will be presented later. We are working on so
many things.

So, really, I want to take this occasion to thank all Americans -- the
United States, you, Mr. President, the Congress, the administration -- for
all the sacrifices, effort, assistance given to help my country.

Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, sir. Thank you.

END 10:58 A.M. EDT

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