By Sue Pleming
The Bush administration welcomed on Saturday a breakthrough
in Iraq's
political deadlock and said the Shi'ite politician
chosen to lead a new government was someone Washington
could work with.
After months of mounting violence and political squabbling,
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani
asked Shi'ite politician Jawad
al-Maliki to head Iraq's
first full-term government since US
forces invaded in March 2003 and toppled Saddam Hussein.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the announcement
was an "important milestone" for Iraq.
"This is a good day for Iraq.
It is an important day for Iraq,"
said Rice in a conference call with reporters.
"This is someone with whom we can work and we are
looking forward to working with him," added Rice, who personally traveled
to Iraq this
month to try and break the impasse.
With pressure growing at home to pull out more than 130,000
troops in Iraq,
the Bush administration was becoming increasingly disheartened at how long it
was taking to form a new government.
In her visit to Iraq
this month, Rice made clear that patience was running out and Washington
blamed the political vacuum for fueling sectarian violence that worsened after
the February bombing of a Shi'ite shrine.
With President Bush's popularity at a low and the prospect
of mid-term congressional elections in November, the Bush administration hopes
a unity government of Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds
will lead to more stability and enable troops to start coming home.
Asked about the US
troop presence, Rice did not indicate when soldiers could be brought home but
she said the US
would continue to support the training of Iraq's
security forces.
"The Iraqi leaders with whom I have spoken ... look
very much forward to the day when they can do this on their own as do we, but
they recognize they are not quite there yet," said Rice.
Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats' unsuccessful candidate for
president in 2000, called on the Bush administration to work with the new Iraqi
prime minister to hammer out a schedule for pulling US troops out of Iraq
by the end of this year.
"As in Vietnam,
we have stayed and fought and died - even thought it is time for us to
go," Kerry said at a speech in Boston.
"Half of the service members listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall died
after America's
leaders knew our strategy would not work. It was immoral then and it would be
immoral now to engage in the same delusion."
PRAISE FOR MALIKI
Rice, who said she had not yet met Maliki,
praised him as a strong figure capable of getting things done and described him
as an Iraqi patriot concerned with Iraq's sovereignty.
Maliki, an official in Iraq's
oldest Islamist party, now has one month to form a cabinet and put it to a
vote. He has sought to shake off his hard-line Shi'ite
image and present himself as a man capable of uniting Shi'ites,
Sunni Arabs and Kurds.
Rice said there was much work ahead to get the rest of the
Iraqi cabinet in place and the new government would have to tackle the security
situation, particularly in Baghdad.
"It's a long list but obviously the security situation
will be key," she said.
Another priority would be to have a Ministry of Interior
create a police force the Iraqi people had confidence in. The Interior Ministry
has been accused of fomenting the sectarian violence that has peaked in recent
months.
Maliki has called for Iraq's
militias to be merged with the armed forces, a move Rice declined comment on
until she had more details.
The issue over how armed groups might be incorporated into Iraq's
Army was an issue to be discussed later on, she added.
Posted: 4/22/06
Source: Reuters
Return to: Condoleezza Rice
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