As a gunbattle raged south of Baghdad, a group of visiting US senators told Iraqi leaders that US patience was growing thin and they needed to urgently overcome their stalemate and form a national unity government.
It was the second high-level US delegation in less than a week delivering the same stark message to Iraqi politicians as the Bush administration steps up pressure to overcome the political impasse that threatens to scuttle hopes to start a US troop pullout this summer.
"We need very badly to form this unity government as soon as possible," Senator John McCain, a Republican, said at a news conference on Saturday after meetings with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. "We all know the polls show declining support among the American people."
PHOTO: AP
The US delegation also voiced alarm about increasing sectarian violence in Iraq showing itself in the daily count of drive-by shootings, bombings and dumped corpses, victims of execution-style killings in the shadowy Shiite-Sunni settling of scores.
Seven people -- most civilians killed in their homes by mortar fire -- died and several others were wounded in a gunbattle between forces of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia and Sunni insurgents near Mahmoudiya, about 30km south of Baghdad.
At least 13 other people were killed in scattered violence on Saturday and two more bodies were found dumped in the capital, shot in the head with their hands and feet bound.
US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who has patiently shepherded negotiations to form a new government, already was looking beyond that task to the need to cap the sectarian, militia-inspired killing.
"More Iraqis are dying today from the militia violence than from the terrorists," Khalilzad told reporters during a visit to a sports complex refurbished with US aid. "This will be a challenge for the new government -- what to do about the militias."
The country's leadership must "overcome the strife that threatens to rip apart Iraq," he said.
Nevertheless, a sixth session of multi-party meetings on Saturday failed to overcome the logjam that has snarled formation of a government for more than three months.
Senator Russell Feingold, the ranking Democrat in the US delegation, joined McCain in pressing for the quick formation of a government, but he spoke bluntly of his concern that the continued presence of US forces was prolonging the conflict.
"It's the reality of a situation like this that when you have a large troop presence that it has the tendency to fuel the insurgency because they can make the incorrect and unfair claim that somehow the United States is here to occupy this country, which of course is not true," Feingold said.
With November's midterm congressional elections drawing nearer and US voters increasingly disenchanted with the Iraq war, the two visits in quick succession by high-powered US politicians signaled deep concern over potential fallout from a lack of progress in Iraq.
"We are very concerned about the sectarian violence that is happening out there and how that erodes not only the confidence of the Iraqi people in this process, but certainly also the confidence of the American people and their commitment to this effort," Republican Senator John Thune said.
Talabani, a Kurd, has formed a coalition with Sunni and secular politicians against a second term for al-Jaafari, a move that deepened the government stalemate more than three months after the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.
The US politicians met separately with each of the men, as well as the US commander in Iraq, General George Casey.
On Tuesday, a delegation led by Senator John Warner, the Republican who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee, delivered the same tough message, saying that the uneasiness back home could force US lawmakers to press for a reduction in US troop strength if the government delay were prolonged -- regardless of the consequences of such an action.
McCain agreed that the damage could be enormous.
Failure in Iraq, he said, would leave "this part of the world in chaos. Not just Iraq, but all of the surrounding countries as well," McCain said.
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
RSS