Top Shiite and Kurdish leaders have disparaged the Iraq Study Group report. Sunni Arabs said they agree with the report's prognosis of Iraq's problems -- but not the proposed cure.
Reaction to the 96-page document released on Wednesday has underlined this nation's political and sectarian fissures, signaling the magnitude of the task ahead for a Bush administration anxiously searching for a change of course in troubled Iraq.
The divisions over the report, reflecting Iraq's ethnic and religious fault lines, center around some of the most highly charged issues afflicting today's Iraq -- national reconciliation, sharing oil wealth and the role of neighboring nations in efforts to end Iraq's problems.
They also come at a time when serious doubts have been raised on whether the ruling Shiite-led government and its leader, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, have the strength to place the nation on the road to stability at a time when its US backers are publicly pondering an exit strategy that would leave Iraq's nascent security forces taking the lead in efforts to end the violence.
Facing rising dissent from within his government, al-Maliki last week said an often-delayed national reconciliation conference would be held this month. A senior aide at the Ministry of National Dialogue, who declined to be identified because he wasn't authorized to release the information, said the meeting would open on Sunday.
The opposition by the myriad ethnic and religious factions is going to make the report's recommendations for changes in US Iraq policy a hard sell, despite calls by the bipartisan commission to reduce political, military or economic support if the government in Baghdad cannot make substantial progress.
"The report includes inaccurate information that's based on dishonest sources," said Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, a top Shiite politician.
He also rejected the report's linkage between ending Iraq's problems and a settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS