Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki

President Bush praised Nouri Maliki at a joint news conference in Amman, Jordan, the day after the leak of a White House memo in 2006 in which the national security advisor expressed doubts about Iraq’s leader.  (Mandel Ngan / AFP/Getty Images)

A woman blesses Nouri Maliki in 2007 at a checkpoint during the prime minister’s venture into the streets of Baghdad to showcase security improvements.  (Wathiq Khuzaie / AFP/Getty Images)

Nouri Maliki and U.S. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, then commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, greet each other in Ramadi, where they met with residents in 2007 to show off what they said was a shift of allegiance among residents in Sunni Arab insurgent territory.  (Patrick Baz / AFP/Getty Images)

Nouri Maliki and Pope Benedict XVI share a warm greeting at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, outside Rome, in July. Maliki, on a trip to Germany and Italy, said the pope understands “bad people exist in all religions, whether Christian or Muslim.”  (Francesco Sforza / Associated Press)

Nouri Maliki prays with Sayyed Ahmed Safee, right center, representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, at the Imam Abbas shrine in the southern city of Karbala in September.  (Mohammed Sawaf / AFP/Getty Images)

A girl greets Nouri Maliki during the opening of Baghdad Day festivities this month. Thousands of Sunni and Shiite Arabs took to the streets across Iraq that day to defend Maliki against criticism from leaders of Iraq’s Kurdish minority.  (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Office / AFP/Getty Images)

An Iraqi man leans in to kiss a poster depicting Nouri Maliki during a demonstration in support of the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement in Basra.  (Nabil al-Jurani / Associated Press)

Nouri Maliki pauses during a speech during Baghdad Day celebrations this month.  (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Office / AFP/Getty Images)