• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Analysis: Mr. Maliki Comes to Washington

Council on Foreign Relations

July 25, 2006
Prepared by: Lionel Beehner

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has had a rocky first hundred days in office. His cabinet, hobbled by political infighting, got off the ground slowly. Some tough rhetoric and tactical shifts when it finally coalesced raised hopes of a fresh start, but sectarian violence quickly dashed them. Domestically, Maliki gets high marks for putting competent ministers in place, but his opponents—even those not out to kill him—paint him as a stooge of the United States. The death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on his watch seems, in retrospect, small consolation given the situation in his capital today.

As if he did not have enough troubles, some of Iraq’s more religious Shiite groups clamored for Maliki to nix his American visit (LAT) because of the fighting in Lebanon. They argue Iraq’s Shiite prime minister should show solidarity with his fellow Lebanese Shiites—more than 300 of whom have died in the latest conflict—and protest Washington’s support for Israel (WashPost). Contrary to hopes in Washington, Maliki did not stand with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan (NYT) in laying blame for the violence primarily at the feet of Hezbollah, whose ties to Shiite Iran are as difficult to fathom as those of Maliki’s political party, the Islamic Dawa Party. The Iraqi government’s complex relationship with Iran is explored in this op-ed by CFR Senior Fellows Steven Simon and Ray Takeyh. A CFR symposium last month explored the rising influence of Shiism.

Whatever Maliki’s views of the Levant, security issues will invariably dominate his visit to Washington and New York. On Maliki’s agenda, officials say, is the possibility of redeploying more U.S. forces to Baghdad, which recently has descended into a new level of anarchy in spite of Maliki’s much-touted security clampdown.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2006 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.