US efforts regarding Iraqi government formation
Iraq-USA, Politics, 4/15/2006

Asked about the efforts among Iraqi groups this week towards progress in forming a government and need for US intervention in these efforts, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormacksaid yesterday "Our ambassador on the ground is in close contact with the various parties who are engaged in these discussions. At this point, I can't provide you an overall update."

McCormack said "I think they're in a better position, the parties on the ground, the Iraqi Government, those involved in the discussions are in a better place to give you an update on where they stand with the talks. I know there's an intention to convene in the parliament next week. Certainly, the Secretary (Condoleezza Rice) is getting updates. It's politics. There's a lot of politics going on in Iraq, but -- and as the Secretary said during her trip there, it's time to move on with the process of government formation. We have seen some progress just during her trip when they presented her with a government platform, with a -- they also presented her with their plan for how the various components of the government would actually work together. It's very important in a young democracy to have those things."

McCormack added "So now they're working out who's going to be sitting in which chairs, who's going to be leading the government. It's a matter of intense discussion at this point. I don't have any updates or any particular points that I would make with regard to that, but I think the Secretary's message that she sent to the political leaders of Iraq still stands today."

McCormack said Rice' trip was important in making the views of the United States, as well as the United Kingdom, clear to the political leaders in Iraq. As a result of that trip there was some progress, he said. There was some forward movement. Ultimately, they're going to make their own decisions about who is leading the government, who's going to be leading the various ministries. I think what the Secretary's trip did was to provide some impetus to that process.

He said "she had good conversations with the Iraqi political leaders that she did have a sense that the pieces were starting to fall into place. It takes -- you know, this takes some time. We are urging the Iraqi political leaders to move forward, but -- and we believe that they are intent upon forming a government of national unity and we are confident that they will succeed in that."

Asked that Rice thought that the formation of a government for a movement on the political process was going to be the key factor in helping the sectarian violence calm down.. the sectarian violence is continuing and now there are reports about Shia and Sunni having to leave their villages because of fears of retribution from other ethnic groups" of Sunni and Shiites. McCormack said "our activities with regard to reconstruction continue. I think everybody understands, and it's very clear, we've seen the report and we've talked about it. And the fact that when you do have the level of violence in Iraq which we do see, some reconstruction activities are much more difficult to pursue, but there is a great deal of progress that has been made on the reconstruction front. There's a lot of capacity that is being built up. Now the task is to continue to build up that capacity and the Iraqis are going to have an increasingly significant role in doing that in the months and years to come. But taking that capacity and connecting it to the people, making sure that people have sort of the last -- are able to have the electrical lines run from the transmission stations to their homes. So a lot of what you see is an issue of the last-mile problem, making sure that that increased generating capacity actually gets to the people. It's important and we, as well as others, are going to be working on that."

McCormack said "I would point out on the reconstruction front, as you've heard from the Secretary before, that the state of the Iraqi infrastructure was much more decrepit than, I think, anybody had expected prior to 2003. So there was a long way to come in terms of the Iraqi infrastructure. Saddam Hussein had failed to invest in that infrastructure. The people who lost out as a result were the Iraqi people. So we are working with the Iraqis, working with our international partners to do as much as we possibly can to build up the Iraqi infrastructure. Now, you talked about sectarian violence and its relationship to Iraqi politics. We do believe that a formation of a national unity government that is truly a government that governs on behalf of all Iraqis will, over the long run, bring down the level of violence, whether that's from the so-called insurgency or as a result of -- or because of violence between various sects. We have witnessed, certainly at the political leadership level, that at every opportunity that they have had to actually come apart, to fly apart, that they have actually pulled together. We saw it in the wake of the Samarra mosque bombing."

He added "Now when you get down to the individual neighborhood ground level, certainly I've seen the reports of the tensions. I think we've read some stories that are disturbing about some of the violence that has occurred. But we have also seen progress in terms of other groups buying into the political process. I would mention the Sunnis. I think that what the Secretary witnessed on this trip, as opposed to her last trip, was a Sunni political leadership that had invested much more in the political process, so that is hopeful. I'm not trying to undersell the challenges that the Iraqis face, the multinational coalition faces in Iraq, but ultimately there is progress being made. And ultimately a national unity government is an important building block for Iraq's democratic future."

Asked about an interferance by Iran in the formation of an Iraqi government, McCormack said "the political issues that exist between the Iraqis are, I think, obviously for them to work out. In terms of outside influence, what we would expect from the Iranians is good neighborly relations, not meddling in the affairs of the Iraqi people and I think there's a strong sense of Iraqi national identity that would resist attempts to do that. So in terms of your question about whether the Iranians are preventing formation of government, I don't have any particular information at my disposal that would indicate that. I think that what we see right now is a political process evolving and a political class among the Iraqis that's developing."

Previous Stories:
  Bush: Iraqi leaders making progress   (4/11/2006)
  Iraqi interim government reviews upcoming Iran-US talks   (4/6/2006)
  Rice escalates pressure on Jaafari   (4/4/2006)

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