Islam Times - President Obama meets Senator Sanders at White House

Islam Times - US President Barack Obama has met with Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, days after praising the Vermont Senator’s chief rival, Hillary Clinton.

According to the White House, the "informal" meeting was held in the Oval Office on Wednesday and had no preset agenda.

"The president and I discussed this morning a number of issues, foreign policy issues, domestic issues, occasionally a little bit of politics," Sanders told reporters after leaving the Oval Office. "I enjoyed the meeting and I thought it was a very positive and constructive meeting."

The Senator, who is gearing up to take on Clinton in the upcoming primaries, said he discussed a broad range of issues with the president including the Daesh (ISIL) Takfiri group, as well as Iran and other points of foreign policy.

Sanders hailed Obama’s policy of avoiding more wars and keeping American troops out of the Middle East “quagmire.”

“I think what the president is trying to do is the right thing,” Sanders continued. “And what he is trying to do is to keep our young men and women out of perpetual war in the quagmire of the Middle East.”

The Senator also took the occasion to underscore his “major point of difference” with Clinton, saying that he was among those who opposed the Iraq War during a 2002 Senate vote.

According to a CBS News survey released on Sunday, Sanders has a 1 point lead over Clinton in Iowa, only a week before the caucuses there.

In New Hampshire, however, the Vermont Senator maintains a 19 percent advantage.

Who will Obama endorse?

The meeting came after Obama held private meetings with Clinton, who served as his Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013.

In an interview last week, Obama praised the former First Lady, deeming her ready to start governing the country as soon as she took office.

"She can govern and she can start here, Day 1, more experienced than any non-vice-president has ever been who aspires to this office," Obama said.

Despite the obvious tilting toward Clinton, however, Obama has avoided a full-fledged endorsement of her, to stand by his pledge not to endorse a candidate before the Democratic primary has ended.