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Group of Iraqis Asks UN to Take Over    [

    Withdrawal From Iraq
    By Georges Malbrunot
    Le Figaro

    Wednesday 12 March 2008

Le Figaro's star Foreign Service reporter believes "the United States will have to negotiate its withdrawal from Iraq with Baghdad's neighbors."

    Five years after defeating Saddam Hussein's regime, the United States - unable to stabilize Iraq - has been reduced to negotiating its military withdrawal with Baghdad's neighbors, including with its worst Iranian and somewhat-less-bad Syrian enemies. Of course, the issue is not presented this way in Washington. Nonetheless, it is not the least of many paradoxes that we see the Americans forced to "regionalize" the Iraqi crisis five years after their triumphant march on Baghdad.

    A precipitous withdrawal of American troops would have dramatic consequences for the Middle East. Post-war victor Iran acted as South Iraq's guardian and also exercised real influence in Baghdad through its relays to the leadership of the Shiite factions that have dominated the political scene in Iraq since 2003. Turkey, for its part, will not tolerate any additional Kurdish pipe dreams of independence, nor, still less, Kurdish jurisdiction over oil-rich Kirkuk which the Kurds so covet. In either of these events, the red lines Ankara's politicians lay down will be drawn by the Turkish army on Iraqi territory. As for Saudi Arabia, all it wants is for the GIs to wring al-Qaeda's neck before they leave, since that terrorist movement threatens Saudi Arabia's own stability.

    Luckily for Washington, the chaos in Iraq is so profound that no bordering country wants the cancer to spread and metastasize at home. That offers the Americans a certain room to maneuver, including vis a vis Iran. In five years, Tehran has patiently constructed a nuisance capability in Iraq that makes Iran an inescapable partner in any negotiations over the future of its former enemy. In Baghdad, however, Tehran absolutely wants to avoid a level of chaos that it cannot control. Tehran's priority is to establish the Islamic Republic's security and permanence: hence the regular meetings with American representatives in Baghdad, the last round of which was postponed a week ago. The Iranians reproach the CIA for exploiting its alliance with Iraq's Sunni tribes to incite them to mount attacks against Iranian territory.

    On their side, the Americans reproach Iran for having resumed arms deliveries to Shiite groups hostile to the United States. Whatever the reality of these accusations, no one doubts that the two enemies will resume talking. Even if the framework for these discussions is officially limited, it could, at the right moment, encompass other disputes among their various disagreements (Iranian nuclear capabilities or support for the Lebanese Hezbollah, for example).

    With Iraq's other neighbors, a formal dialogue takes place within the framework of ministerial conferences devoted to regional security. Syrian cooperation to forestall the flood of foreign jihadists into Iraq is at the center of these discussions. For the last few months, that situation has improved. Damascus has, moreover, supplemented that progress with significant gestures: an American military attache was invited to Syria's border with Iraq. The Syrians have also authorized American officials to come and supervise Iraqi refugee visa requests. What remains to be seen is whether in the event of a sudden rise in tensions the United States will be able to detach the Syrians from their Iranian allies. Nothing is less certain, as Damascus is in the habit of keeping two irons in the fire at all times.

    With its Saudi and Jordanian partners, the American game is easier. Washington finally heard their recriminations over the Sunni minority's inadequate participation in the Iraqi government. The United States will need Riyadh and Amman's cooperation when it will become necessary to redeploy American troops to Iraq's interior, or to its borders.

    The other issue induced by the beginning of an American withdrawal is that Washington has to negotiate the contours of a strategic agreement with Baghdad that will define the status of the 50,000 American soldiers to remain in Iraq, whoever is elected president in November. Yesterday, the two sides resumed these politically quite sensitive negotiations in Baghdad. How can such a contingent be kept on Iraqi soil, while both Americans and Iraqis repeat the assertion that there will be no more American bases?

    Behind the complexity of the bilateral issues, control of Iraqi oil makes a deal much more difficult to negotiate. Can Washington authorize the Iranians to exploit those oil fields shared with Iraq? In the event of an American veto, Tehran could continue to stall adoption of the oil law which has been under discussion for over a year in the Baghdad parliament and without which the majors - i.e. the Americans - cannot operate in Iraq. One certainty: the United States cannot leave the former Mesopotamia without nailing down the oil equation.

    Go to Original

    Group of Iraqis Asks UN to Take Over
    By Ryan Lenz
    The Associated Press

    Wednesday 12 March 2008

    Baghdad - A group of Iraqi tribal leaders, former politicians and intellectuals appealed Wednesday to the United Nations to take control of Iraq in a move they say would help U.S. troops leave the beleaguered country.

    Both the U.S. administration and the Baghdad government are unlikely to endorse the request, which was addressed to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and delivered to the Cairo offices of the organization.

    "We believe that the only opportunity left for Iraq to be saved from a dark, but not inevitable future, is to engage the international community represented by the United Nations," the letter said. "Such a step will allow the American troops to leave and the occupation to be brought to its end."

    The group's coordinators include Adeeb al-Jadir, Ahmed Al-Haboubi and Nouri Abdel Razak Hussein, politicians overthrown in 1968 when Saddam Hussein's Baath party came to power and long part of the liberal anti-regime opposition prior to the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

    The U.N. dramatically curtailed its operations in Iraq after an August 2003 suicide attack killed its representative and scores of others. The United States has been pushing for an expanded U.N. role in Iraq but that did not include supervising the country.

    The Iraqi group said the world body should supervise a new security plan to restore order during a transitional period and prepare for new elections of a government to replace Nouri al-Maliki's troubled cabinet.

    Representatives for the campaign will travel to the U.N. headquarters in New York to seek support from key members, said al-Haboubi, a former government minister.

    "We are also ready to discuss our proposals with U.S. officials," he said.

    The men said the petition was signed by dozens of Iraqi dignitaries and they had scores of supporters in Iraq who preferred to rename anonymous for know to avoid harassment.

    Meanwhile, the Iraqi government on Wednesday announced a committee formed to explore ways citizens could sue U.S. forces involved in "unjustified killings," according to the prime minister's office.

    The U.S. military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    Also Wednesday, the U.S. military acknowledged that a roadside bomb targeting a passing U.S. convoy had struck near a passenger bus, a day after initially claiming no one died in the attack.

    U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner could not confirm the number of casualties, but said no U.S. forces were involved in any gunfire that followed.

    "We are still working with Iraqi security forces, and those now investigating the detailed circumstances of that attack, to learn whatever else we can," Bergner said.

    Dr. Hadi Badr al-Riyahi, head of the Nasiriyah provincial health directorate, confirmed that the attack on the bus traveling from Najaf to Basra killed 16 civilians and wounded 20 about 50 miles south of Nasiriyah.

    At the time of the attack, a local policeman and the assistant bus driver also said 16 people were killed on the bus, which was riddled with holes that appeared to be caused by shrapnel or bullets.

    On Tuesday, violence reportedly killed a total of at least 42 people across Iraq. The sudden spike comes in the wake of a 60 percent drop in attacks across the country since June, according to U.S. military figures.

    According to an Associated Press count, at the height of unrest from November 2006 to August 2007, on average approximately 65 Iraqis died each day as a result of violence. As conditions improved, the daily death toll steadily declined. It reached its lowest point in more than two years on January 2008, when on average 20 Iraqis died each day.

    Those numbers have since jumped. In February, approximately 26 Iraqis died each day as a result of violence, and so far in March, that number is up to 39 daily. These figures reflect the months in which people were found, and not necessarily, in the case of mass graves, the months in which they were killed.