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Maliki threatened: 'If he meets Bush, he should not come back'

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Thursday, November 30, 2006

AMMAN — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki was warned not to meet President George W. Bush.

U.S. officials said Al Maliki was informed by his advisers that talks with Bush would endanger his government and life. The officials said Iranian-backed insurgents have threatened to kill him when he returns from his meetings in the Jordanian capital of Amman.

"He [Al Maliki] was told that if he meets Bush, he should not come back," an official said.

The official said the threats against Al Maliki were also reported by U.S. ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad. The official said the threats led to a revision of Bush's schedule in Jordan.

On Thursday, Al Maliki and Bush met in a low-key early-morning session in Amman. After the two-and-a-half hour session, both leaders demonstrated restraint during a joint news conference.

"One of his frustrations with me is that he believes that we've been slow about giving him the tools necessary to protect the Iraqi people," Bush said of Al Maliki. "He doesn't have the capacity to respond. So we want to accelerate that capacity."

Earlier, Al Maliki canceled a meeting with Bush and Jordan's King Abdullah scheduled for Wednesday in wake of the leak of a classified memorandum by National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley that asserted that the Iraqi prime minister had lost control of his government and could not stop Sunni-Shi'ite violence.

"It's [cancellation of Al Maliki meeting] not a snub of the president, nor is it a snub of the prime minister, period," a senior administration official said on Wednesday.

Officials said the Hadley memo questioned Al Maliki's intentions and capabilities. The memo raised the prospect that Al Maliki was misleading the United States.

"The reality on the streets suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what's going on, misrepresenting his intentions or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient," the Nov. 8 memo said.

The Al Maliki meeting with Bush has rocked the government in Baghdad. The bloc of Shi'ite cleric Muqtada Al Sadr, with 30 members of parliament, announced the suspension of its participation in the Al Maliki government.

"This visit hijacked the will of the people during days when the sons of Iraq write their destiny with blood and not ink," a statement by the Al Sadr bloc said.

Officials said Al Maliki has come under increasing threat from both Iranian- and U.S.-backed factions in Iraq. They said both have become dissatisfied with his performance in dealing with the civil war in Iraq.

"Those who participate in this government need to bear responsibilities," Al Maliki told the news conference on Thursday. "And foremost upon those responsibilities is the protection of this government, the protection of the constitution, the protection of the law, not breaking the law."

The U.S. Defense Department has been examining a redeployment of the 140,000 American troops in Iraq. Officials said this would include the withdrawal of units from the western Anbar province and the addition of four battalions in Baghdad.

"Number one, eventually over time, it is our goal to turn over every province in Iraq to the Iraq security forces under the command and control of the Iraq government," Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. "That is our goal. There is no immediate thoughts to moving all coalition forces out of Al Anbar province and turning over right now today all security in Al Anbar to Iraqi security forces. It's not on the table."


Copyright © 2006 East West Services, Inc.

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