July 07, 2010
Biden visit to Iraq seen to achieve little
BAGHDAD: US Vice-President Joe Biden has ended a visit to Iraq without presenting any plan to nudge the country’s leaders towards forming a government, four months after an election.
Biden made no proposals in talks with incumbent Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki, top vote winner and ex-premier Iyad Allawi, and others, causing disappointment among those who had hoped his visit might help to end the post-election deadlock.
No one won the March 7 ballot outright, leading to prolonged political jostling. Coalition talks could still last several more months, exposing Iraq to a risky vacuum as it emerges from sectarian war but struggles to contain a stubborn insurgency.
Some Sunni politicians in Iraq have accused the United States of not doing enough to support the right of Allawi’s cross-sectarian Iraqiya bloc to form the government.
They also suspect neighbouring Iran wants a Shiite-led government that would continue to sideline the minority Sunnis who dominated Iraq before the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein.
“There is no clear support for Iraqiya and there is no favouring one party over the other. They stayed in the middle,” said Osama Al Nujaifi, a senior Sunni leader in Iraqiya.
“They talked about electoral rights and respecting the election results ... (but) stayed away from the main sensitive issues,” he said after Biden met Allawi.
The US military’s plans to end combat operations in August and withdraw completely next year have raised anxiety among those Sunnis, and also minority Kurds, who see the US forces as a bulwark against majority Shiites.
The fragility of security gains was evident on Sunday night when mortar rounds fell on Baghdad’s Green Zone government and diplomatic enclave, where the US embassy is located. No one was injured and no damage caused, US officials said.
On Monday, another mortar round exploded in the area, Iraqi police sources said.
Both Allawi’s Iraqiya and a Shiite bloc formed from a merger between Maliki’s State of Law and the Iran-friendly Iraqi National Alliance (INA) claim the right to have a first stab at forming the government.
Biden, appointed by President Barack Obama to take the lead on Iraq issues, met Maliki and Allawi on Sunday.
On Monday he met Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Ammar Al Hakim, head of the Iranian-backed Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (ISCI).
The Isci is part of the INA, which finished third in the election, behind State of Law and Iraqiya.
Biden declined to talk to the media at the end of his visit.
The vice president and other US officials stressed over the three-day visit that the United States “has no hidden agenda” in Iraq and no favourite candidate.
“There was no discussion of individuals, there was no discussion of who gets what job, again there was no discussion of an American plan for Iraq because there isn’t one,” said a senior US administration official travelling with Biden.
Iraqis had hoped the election would lead to stability and economic recovery seven years after the 2003 US-led invasion.
Sunnis, who voted overwhelmingly for Iraqiya, could react angrily if Allawi is not appointed as prime minister.
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