IRAQ: Parliament speaker views new crackdown as a last-ditch effort to stabilise Iraq

Record ID: 731190

  • Title: IRAQ: Parliament speaker views new crackdown as a last-ditch effort to stabilise Iraq
  • Date: 7th February 2007
  • Summary: (W3) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (FEBRUARY 6, 2007)(REUTERS) IRAQI ARMY MANNING CHECKPOINT ON ENTRANCE TO SADR CITY IRAQI SOLDIER ON TOP OF ARMOURED VEHICLE IRAQI ARMOURED VEHICLE IRAQI SOLDIER DIRECTING TRAFFIC MEMBER OF IRAQI NATIONAL POLICE SEARCHING SACKS ON PICKUP TRUCK SOLDIER DIRECTING TRAFFIC MUZZLE OF SOLDIER'S RIFLE/ CARS DRIVING PAST MEMBERS OF IRAQI POLICE FORCE SEARCHING CARS IRAQI POLICE CHECKPOINT
  • Embargoed: 22nd February 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVAEB8O1O4QEYO1VH06CF5951PSM
  • Story Text: Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani in an interview urged all political parties and Iraqi people to back an U.S.-Iraqi campaign to stabilize Baghdad, warning that without cooperation the whole Iraqi political project could fall to pieces.

    Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani urged all the political parties and the Iraqi people on Wednesday (February 7) to back an U.S.-Iraqi campaign to stabilize Baghdad, warning that the failure of the plan would plunge the country into further turmoil.
    "This plan is the last-ditch effort by the U.S. administration and and the new Iraqi political system. If the plan failed, the Iraqi project of the U.S. administration would fail and the whole Iraqi political project would fall to pieces," Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni Arab, said in an interview with Reuters.
    Iraqi officials say the planned crackdown was due to have started this week but that Iraqi security forces have asked for more time to get their troops in place. A previous offensive last summer failed because too few Iraqi troops were committed.
    Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered Iraq's military commanders on Tuesday (February 6) to speed up preparations for a U.S.-backed crackdown in Baghdad after a string of attacks killed hundreds of people in recent days.
    Maliki has previously said the operation will target Shi'ite and Sunni militants alike, answering criticism that a similar crackdown last summer failed partly because his Shi'ite-led government stopped U.S. troops going after Shi'ite militias.
    Despite Maliki's call for urgency, U.S. officers say there will be a gradual build-up in the offensive.
    A U.S. general urged Iraqis at the weekend to be patient. While thousands of Iraqi reinforcements have arrived in Baghdad, most of the extra troops promised by Bush have yet to arrive.
    Iraqi security forces manned new checkpoints in some neighbourhoods across Baghdad. Unusually, Iraqi army and police units were seen patrolling Sadr City, bastion of the Mehdi Army militia of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a key Maliki ally.
    U.S. Humvees and other armoured vehicles were seen deployed in the mainly Shi'ite Shaab neighbourhood, where many families have fled sectarian violence.
    While many Baghdad residents were on edge ahead of the crackdown, some complained about the new security measures.
    Mashhadani also urged war-weary Iraqis to support the plan, seen as a last-ditch effort to prevent Iraq from pitching into all-out civil war.
    "If there is no serious and genuine cooperation from the Iraqi people, this will be a failure of the plan. Generally speaking, the executive apparatus has presented to us a very good plan."
    The new U.S. military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, a counter-insurgency expert, is also not yet in Iraq but is due to arrive in the next few days. U.S. President George W. Bush has committed 17,500 more troops to the Baghdad push.
    Mashhadani also asked Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to give further clarifications of recent remarks that talks with Syria as the "the main player" may be the last chance to help stabilize Iraq.
    "I want to comment on the remarks by his excellency President Bashar Al-Assad in an interview with the CNN (should be ABC). It was an implied admission that Syria is the main player and not the single player in this issue (in stabilizing Iraq) and the United States has to negotiate with it to solve Iraq's issue. This is a confession, and a confession is a concrete piece of evidence, that it (Syria) plays a sabotage role inside Iraq," Mashhadani said.
    "Therefore, I hope from his excellency the President (Assad) to clarify it, either by refuting it or by more explanation. Because, during our visit (to Syria) they told us that they support security and now it's as if he (Assad) wants to bargain with the Iraqi issue for the interest of Syria," he added.
    U .S. allies and the bipartisan Iraq Study Group have urged President Bush to hold direct talks with Iran. Bush has not ruled out a regional conference to help Iraq involving Iran and Syria but the White House has indicated Iraq would have to set it up.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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