Print

Mail

wiki links

Rice, Straw wrap up visit to Iraq

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw yesterday wrapped up a surprise Iraq visit without any clear indication when a new government would be formed more than three months after elections.

"We came here to give momentum to the process that is already underway. It is not my responsibility or of Mr Straw to determine who is going to be the prime minister of Iraq," Rice told reporters.

"That will be determined by Iraqis. But we need a strong, unifying government led by someone who can bring stability and meet the challenges of the Iraqi people," she said.

Straw and Rice wound up two days of intensive talks with Iraqi leaders pressing them to speed up the formation of a government without reporting any immediate signs of concrete progress.

Rice said Iraqi leaders were under pressure from their own people to break the political deadlock and squabbling since the mid-December legislative elections but "that process has to take place quickly."

She said the US and the UK had a "better understanding of pieces that are falling in place to make this process go forward."

Straw added: "There is a lot of indication this message [to speed up the process] is going through. I think there is a sense by Iraqi politicians that they recognize the urgency of the matter."

Rice and Straw stressed that a rapid formation of a new government was the key to stem the tide of violence in the country.

"You cannot have a circumstance where there is a political vacuum in a country like this that faces so much threat of violence," Rice said.

For his part, Straw, on his third visit to Iraq this year, echoed Rice's comments and while acknowledging that progress had been made urged politicians to take the next step.

"They have made a lot of progress in the way in which this coalition government should operate, it is now crucial they move forward quickly to ensure the nomination of the senior positions," Straw said.

The two chief diplomats were asked about their reported objections to current Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari keeping his post, but they maintained only that the leader of the next government would have to be a unifying figure.

Rice and Straw referred to the sacrifices their countries had made in lives and resources to free Iraq and get the country back on its feet since their 2003 invasion that ousted former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

Straw signaled a degree of impatience.

"We recognize that coalition always takes time," he said. "But this is now taking more than that."

He warned that "if this vacuum continues, then the opportunity for the terrorists and the insurgents who are trying to stop democracy, stop the Iraqi people having their own government will ... expand."

The two foreign ministers had high praise for Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, apparently counting on the Shiite religious leader to help break the political deadlock.

"Without the remarkable spiritual guidance shown by his eminence, the Grand Ayatollah Sistani, this country for all its problems it now faces would not have in its hands the potential for a better future," Straw said.
This story has been viewed 1167 times.