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Iraqi government in deepest crisis
27.7.2007
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US
and Iraqi officials are trying to prevent complete
disintegration.
July
27, 2007
Baghdad - Iraq is in the throes of its worst
political crisis since the fall of Saddam Hussein
with the new democratic system, based on national
consensus among its ethnic and sectarian groups,
appearing dangerously close to collapsing, say
several politicians and analysts.
This has brought paralysis to governmental
institutions and has left parliament unable to make
headway on 18 benchmarks Washington is using to
measure progress in Iraq, including legislation on
oil revenue sharing and reforming security forces.
And the disconnect between Baghdad and Washington
over the urgency for solutions is growing. The Iraqi
parliament is set for an August vacation as the Bush
administration faces pressure to show progress in
time for a September report to Congress.
At the moment, Iraqi politicians are simply trying
to keep the government from disintegrating. On
Friday, top Iraqi officials were set to convene in
the Kurdish north for a crisis summit, in the hopes
that talks held outside of Baghdad's politically
poisonous atmosphere may bring some resolution to
the current political standstill. President Jalal
Talabani and his two deputies, Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki and the president of the semiautonomous
Kurdistan region, Massoud Barzani, were set to meet
at the Salaheddin summer resort at the end of a
difficult week.
On Wednesday, the Iraqi Accordance Front said it
pulled out of Mr. Maliki's coalition government, but
would return its six cabinet members if the prime
minister met a list of demands. The Sunni bloc says
it wants, among other things, pardons for detainees
not facing specific criminal charges and for all
militias to be disbanded.
"We are frankly in the midst of the worst crisis,"
says Fakhri Karim, a close adviser to Messrs.
Barzani and Talabani who also publishes the
independent Al Mada newspaper. He says he doubts the
Friday meeting will find any resolution because of
the new political tussle with the Iraqi Accordance
Front.
"Most of the political blocs have failed to operate
within the framework of national consensus. They
can't even properly formulate their positions and
proposals, let alone realize the very serious
dangers that surround everyone."
The gravity of the situation was underscored by
several officials. "We have a governmental crisis.
Our people expect better performance," said Foreign
Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
And since Saturday, US Ambassador Ryan Crocker has
been shuttling between Iraq's top leaders, but an
embassy spokesperson said this was not necessarily
indicative of a crisis.
"The surge has done well in making a difference in
security conditions. But it isn't a light switch for
reconciliation; there are no quick fixes to years of
bitterness and violence," he said.
Some US military officers have expressed concern
privately that Iraq's leadership has failed to take
advantage of some of the breathing room offered by
the US-led surge against insurgents and militants.
The crisis is also fueling discontent and alienation
among Iraqis.
"They are making us regret we ever voted for them
... they should learn something about unity from our
soccer team," said an anonymous caller on a state
television program on Wednesday after Iraq's victory
over South Korea in the Asian Cup semifinals.
Iraq's two rounds of elections in 2005 were historic
in many ways. They empowered once-marginalized
Shiites and Kurds, but the experience also enshrined
and even codified in the new Constitution a
consensus-based system that is built on a delicate
division of authority along sectarian and ethnic
lines.
This was meant mainly to accommodate the embittered
Sunni Arabs who were slow to embrace the political
process and continue to fuel a violent insurgency
that has spiraled into a bloody sectarian war.
But 14 months after Maliki, a Shiite, formed his
so-called government of national unity, Iraq's quest
for democracy has hit a wall. Political leaders,
mainly Shiites and Sunnis, are now trading a barrage
of very serious recriminations.
"The partnership experience has been dealt major
blows ... we tried to maintain our good intentions
and patience ... but we have been faced with
arrogance, a monopoly over power, and efforts to
eliminate [us] in every way," said Khalaf al-Olayan
from the Iraqi Accordance Front at a press
conference announcing the suspension of six cabinet
members from the government.
If they pull out, it would bring to 13 the number of
vacancies in Maliki's 39-member cabinet.
"We are firmly convinced after this bitter
experience that this government represented by its
prime minister is incapable of joining a truly
patriotic project," added Mr. Olayan, surrounded by
Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi and the front's
other leaders.
He said the pullout would become finalized in a week
unless Maliki showed willingness to fulfill a list
of 12 conditions that boil down to releasing
thousands of detainees held in US and Iraqi prisons
without charges, ending what the front considers the
indiscriminate targeting of Sunnis.
Sami al-Askari, a parliamentarian and close adviser
to Maliki, said all the accusations and demands by
the Sunni bloc are merely a smoke screen for one
thing: "Hashemi's desire for more powers than what
has been accorded to him under the Constitution."
Mr. Askari accused the Sunni bloc of operating from
the get-go more like opposition than a partner.
Maliki and his Shiite allies have repeatedly charged
that the Sunnis want to bring down the government
and reverse the current political equation with the
help of regional Sunni Arab powers Egypt and Saudi
Arabia.
Last week, Maliki said Arab media was in on "this
conspiracy."
Before the withdrawal of the Sunnis from the
government, there had been efforts last week to
contain the crisis, namely by resuscitating a
proposal to create a coalition of so-called
moderates to back the government and "isolate the
extremists on both sides, Sunnis and Shiites,"
according to Foreign Minister Zebari.
The Kurds and Shiites tried to lure Mr. Hashemi and
his Iraqi Islamic Party away from his Sunni Iraqi
Accordance Front partners, but he rejected their
overtures Sunday.
Robert Springborg, director of the Middle East
Institute at the University of London, says the
heart of the problem was that no one is truly
committed to a strong and unified government.
"The actors involved have their own agendas, the
central government and its resources are a tool for
their own aspirations ... none are committed to a
government for all Iraqis," he says.
Pointing to the growing disconnect between
Washington and Baghdad, Askari, Maliki's adviser,
says, "Washington believes that passing the oil law
will impact on reconciliation and the security
situation. We beg to differ. This matters little to
the armed groups that kill Iraqis every day. Their
sole agenda is to reverse what we have achieved so
far."
csmonitor com
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