John Kerry Surprise Visit to Iraq to Lobby Prime Minister About Iranian Weapons Headed to Syria

Starts with cluster, ends in uck

Secretary of State John F. Kerry used an unannounced visit to Iraq on Sunday to lobby Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for greater scrutiny of flights the United States claims carry Iranian weapons and fighters across Iraq to Syria.

The Obama administration has been unable to persuade Iraq to block such flights or even to perform regular inspections. Iraq claims that Iranian flights over its territory carry only humanitarian supplies for the civil war in next-door Syria, and the only two known inspections of Iranian aircraft showed only those supplies.