Another day another leak... this is getting old.
Bush Summit With Iraqi Prime Minister Delayed
White House Memo Raised Doubts About al-Maliki Leadership
By DEB RIECHMANN, AP
AMMAN, Jordan (Nov. 29) - President Bush's high-stakes summit with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was put off Wednesday after public disclosure of U.S. doubts about his capacity to control sectarian warfare. The White House said the two leaders would meet on Thursday.
The postponement was announced shortly after Bush arrived here for talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II and al-Maliki. Bush's meeting with the king was to proceed on schedule.
White House counselor Dan Bartlett denied that the move was a snub by al-Maliki or was related to the leak of a White House memo questioning the prime minister's capacity for controlling violence in Iraq.
"Absolutely not," Bartlett said." He said the king and the prime minister had met before Bush arrived from a NATO summit in Latvia. "It negated the purpose for a meeting of the three of them," Bartlett said.
Bartlett said that Wednesday night's three-way meeting had always been planned as "more of a social meeting" and that Bush and Maliki on Thursday would have a "robust" meeting on their own.
The president was expected to ask the embattled Iraqi prime minister how best to train Iraqi forces faster so they can shoulder more responsibility for halting the sectarian violence and, specifically, mending a gaping Sunni-Shiite divide.
Bush arrived here amid disclosure of a memo by a top White House adviser that raised doubts about al-Maliki's ability to halt escalating sectarian violence in Iraq, where U.S. involvement now exceeds the length of America's participation in World War II.
"We will discuss the situation on the ground in his country, our ongoing efforts to transfer more responsibility to the Iraqi security forces, and the responsibility of other nations in the region to support the security and stability of Iraq," Bush said Tuesday at the NATO summit.
"We'll continue to be flexible, and we'll make the changes necessary to succeed. But there's one thing I'm not going to do: I'm not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete," he said.
Meanwhile, Iraqi lawmakers and cabinet ministers loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr suspended their participation in the parliament and government in protest over al-Maliki's summit with Bush. In Syria, President Bashar Assad said his country will continue to challenge U.S. efforts to exert control over the Middle East.
The White House has avoided saying that Bush will be pressuring al-Maliki at the meeting to do more to stop the bloodshed. National security adviser Stephen Hadley says the Iraqi prime minister pushes himself - and that Bush will be listening to al-Maliki's ideas, not imposing plans on him.
But in a classified Nov. 8 memo following his Oct. 30 trip to Baghdad, Hadley expressed serious doubts about whether al-Maliki had the capacity to control the sectarian violence in Iraq, and recommended steps to strengthen the Iraqi leader's position, The New York Times reported in Wednesday editions.
"The reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action," the memo said.
The White House did not dispute the accuracy of the memo, but a senior administration official said the document, taken as a whole, it is an expression of support for al-Maliki. "You have a constant reiteration of the importance of strengthening the Maliki government, the need to work with him, to augment his capabilities," the official said.
He added that Bush and Maliki have a "personal relationship" that allows them to "talk candidly about the challenges."
Another official, also speaking anonymously because of the classified nature of the memo, said it was not "a slap in the face, but it's, 'How do we grow his capability.' "
"The president has confidence in Prime Minister Maliki, and also the administration is working with the prime minister to improve his capabilities," Press Secretary Tony Snow told reporters, adding that Maliki "has been very aggressive in recent weeks in taking on some of the key challenges."
Abdullah has warned that unless bold steps are taken posthaste, the new year could dawn with three civil wars in the Mideast - in Lebanon, between the Palestinians and Israelis and in Iraq. He says the fighting in Iraq amounts to a civil war between the Sunnis and Shiites, but Bush chooses to characterize it differently.
"No question it's tough," Bush said. "There's a lot of sectarian violence taking place, fomented, in my opinion, because of these attacks by al-Qaida, causing people to seek reprisal."
His meeting with al-Maliki is part of a new flurry of diplomacy the administration has undertaken across the Middle East. Hadley's memo suggests that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hold a meeting for Iraq and its neighbors in the region early next month.
After the Bush-al-Maliki summit, Rice is staying behind in the region for talks with Palestinian, and possibly, Israeli leaders, who agreed last weekend on a cease-fire to end five months of fighting in the Gaza Strip.
Hadley suggested in his memo the United States could step up efforts to get Saudi Arabia to take a leadership role in supporting Iraq. Hadley said Saudi Arabia could use its influence to move Sunni populations in Iraq out of violence and into politics, cut off any public or private funding provided to the insurgents or death squads from the region and lean on Syria to terminate its support for Baathists and insurgent leaders.
Bush is regaining his footing on the world stage after the November election when Democrats seized the reins of both the House and Senate. The election was largely viewed as a referendum on the war, and the day after, Bush announced that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was stepping down from his post. |
