[Mb-civic] Steps Toward Unity in Iraq - David Ignatius - Washington Post Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

Steps Toward Unity in Iraq

By David Ignatius
The Washington Post
Thursday, March 16, 2006; A23

BAGHDAD -- There has been so much bad news out of Iraq lately that you 
have to pinch yourself when good things seem to be happening. But there 
are unmistakable signs here this week that Iraq's political leaders are 
taking the first tentative steps toward forming a broad government of 
national unity that could reverse the country's downward slide.

What has brought Iraq's political factions together is the crisis that 
followed the Feb. 22 bombing of the Samarra mosque, which raised the 
danger that Iraq might tumble into a full-scale civil war. The country's 
political leaders seemed to realize, as they stood at the brink, that 
they would either come together or Iraq would fall apart. So far they 
seem to be choosing unity -- or at least serious talks about unity.

The venue has been a series of meetings this week that have included all 
of the country's major political factions. This conclave was proposed a 
week ago by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. His idea was that the 
political leaders should all gather, in rural Iraq or perhaps at a 
Baghdad hotel, and keep meeting until they hammered out a new government.

The factional leaders promptly endorsed these "make or break" 
negotiations, though they decided to meet on each other's turf. The 
first meeting of about two dozen political leaders and aides took place 
Sunday at the Baghdad headquarters of Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, 
followed by a session Tuesday at the headquarters of Shiite leader Abdul 
Aziz al-Hakim and a gathering Wednesday at the house of Iraqi President 
Jalal Talabani. Khalilzad has attended all of the sessions and has 
played a role like that of a mediator in a labor dispute.

Khalilzad told me in an interview in his office after Wednesday's 
session that the talks had produced tentative agreement on two basic 
points: First, the parties endorsed the idea of a unity government that 
would include all the major factions. Second, they agreed that this 
government should have a top-level "national security commission" that 
would include representatives of all the major political parties. 
Operating by consensus, this body would frame the broad outlines of 
policy, subject to the Iraqi constitution.

This week's dialogue broke the deadlock over the composition of the 
coalition. A month ago, radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was 
refusing to endorse any government that included the party of Ayad 
Allawi, a close ally of the United States who, as interim prime 
minister, had ordered a military strike against Sadr and his Mahdi Army 
militia. Khalilzad said Wednesday that the logjam was broken "because 
people realized that if one side has red lines, all sides will have red 
lines." He said of this week's gatherings: "These are the best meetings 
of Iraqis I've seen since I've been here."

The U.S. ambassador's upbeat account is believable because it is echoed 
by Iraqi political leaders. Adel Abdul Mahdi, Iraq's vice president and 
a representative of Hakim and his powerful Shiite party known as the 
Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, told me Wednesday: 
"We have a common understanding on major issues -- on the need for 
consensus and on a national security commission. What makes me confident 
is that I think we are building up a sense of understanding among 
different communities." He said the message of the new government must 
be: "No one is outside of the law, whether the Badr Organization [the 
Supreme Council's militia], the Mahdi Army or the insurgency."

One seeming obstacle to unity has been fear about the role of Iran. To 
finesse that issue, Hakim said he is urging Iran to talk with the United 
States about Iraq's political future. Khalilzad himself has been quietly 
exploring what he calls the "modalities" for such U.S.-Iran talks on Iraq.

One hint of the new spirit of accord (and also of the political 
jockeying taking place) emerged when I visited Ahmed Chalabi, a Shiite 
politician who has allied himself over the past year with Sadr and with 
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari. With Chalabi Wednesday was Sheik 
Khalaf Elayan, one of the leaders of the biggest Sunni party. Chalabi 
seems to be seeking Sunni political allies, believing that they will be 
a crucial part of the next government. He also believes that Sunni 
tribal leaders such as Khalaf are working to stop the al-Qaeda leader 
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The Iraqi political dialogue will move into a new and potentially 
fractious stage soon, when the leaders begin bargaining over who will 
hold top positions in the new government. Those negotiations could blow 
apart the fragile hopes for a unity government. But, for a change, 
pessimism isn't necessarily the right bet for Iraq.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/15/AR2006031502180.html?nav=hcmodule
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