Posted on 11/11/2003 5:24:12 PM PST by Brian S
By James Drummond in Baghdad and James Harding and Guy Dinmore in Washington
Published: November 11 2003 21:19 | Last Updated: November 11 2003 21:19
Iraq's foreign minister on Tuesday blamed "geriatric ambassadors" from the west and "American infighting" for many of the problems and the security failures bedevilling the US-led occupation of Iraq.
The stinging attack from a leading Iraqi on the US-run occupation came as Paul Bremer, the US chief civilian administrator in Baghdad, cancelled a meeting with visiting Polish prime minister Leszek Miller to return at short notice for talks in Washington.
US officials said Mr Bremer was making a regular trip back to Washington. But abandoning a scheduled meeting with the leader of a key member of the "coalition of the willing" added to the sense of an increasingly febrile mood in the Bush administration over the governance of Iraq.
In response to complaints from unnamed Bush administration officials that Iraq's interim Governing Council has become an obstacle to progress, Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, launched an angry defence of the IGC.
"I think this debate about the ruling council - that it is not doing its work, that it is not taking decisions - this is unfair," Mr Zebari said in an interview.
"It has nothing to do with the performance, with the working of the governing council . . . American infighting among themselves between different departments over policy . . . has created many, many of the difficulties that we are going through," he said.
Mr Zebari also criticised the quality of advice that Mr Bremer receives on the security issue, although co-operation has improved since the early days after Baghdad fell in April.
Since the Saddam Hussein regime fell, the former opposition groups, which dominate the council, have been pressing for more control over the security situation in Iraq.
"The problem with the coalition is that they have some experts, so-called, who still live in the 1950s, in the 1940s - some geriatric ambassadors who have a certain interpretation of how Iraq works. It has gone, it has changed," Mr Zebari said.
US officials have criticised the 24 members of the IGC for failing to attend meetings and pursuing personal political and economic interests at the expense of the coalition's agenda to restore Iraqi self-government.
Officials with the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad have complained that progress on mechanisms for trying members of the former Ba'athist regime - for which the IGC has specific responsibility - has also been lacking.
The chief concern voiced in Washington has been that the IGC will fail to meet a December 15 deadline for setting a schedule for writing a new Iraqi constitution and holding elections.
Colin Powell, US secretary of state, this week raised for the first time the possibility of putting in place a "basic law" in Iraq "before we get to a full constitution".
"These are discussions that Ambassador Bremer is now having with the Governing Council in Iraq, and it will take time for us to resolve these issues," Mr Powell said in a television interview.
He did not elaborate on what a basic law would look like or how it would be drawn up, but his remarks reflected concern within the administration over delays in the original plan of having the Governing Council oversee the writing of a new constitution and then holding a national referendum before moving to national elections.
Mr Zebari insisted on Tuesday that the council members would meet the deadline: "The whole focus is to go forward and deliver on December 15...We are committed, we are confident we are going to do it," he said.
Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, on Tuesday left open the possibility of sending more US troops to Iraq if his military commanders made such a request.
He said he hoped they "are telling the truth" when they assured him no more troops were needed.
This doesn't sound like Rumsfeld one bit. Probably taken waaay out of context.
Prairie
Effing liars.
That's how I read it. Anti-State Department.
Iraq isn't Afghanistan. I think they are anxious to get their state going.
Does that mean it's "progress?"
I could not have made the case against the State Department myself. Brilliant.
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