27 October 2006
Iraqi Leaders Must Develop Political Goals, State Official Says
United States has confidence in Maliki government to set, meet benchmarks
Washington -- It is up to Iraq’s leaders to develop the political benchmarks that will carry that nation forward to stability and security, according to a senior State Department official.
“The whole concept of goals, objectives, benchmarks, achievements to be made as a useful shaping tool is very much an Iraqi product. It is an Iraqi tool. It is something that is reached mainly in internal consultation amongst Iraqis,” the State Department’s senior Iraq coordinator, David Satterfield, said at an October 26 press briefing in Washington. “These are benchmarks that reflect the desires, the understanding, the intentions of the Iraqi government.”
The issue of benchmarks for progress in Iraq was raised in an October 24 news briefing from Baghdad, Iraq, by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and U.S. General George Casey, commander of Multi-National Forces - Iraq. If Iraqi leaders meet their agreed-upon security and political goals over the next 12 to 18 months, then Iraqi forces should be capable of securing the country with reduced U.S. military assistance, Khalilzad and Casey said. (See related article.)
Satterfield, speaking to reporters at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, said Iraq successfully has used benchmarks in the past to guide it through its electoral and constitutional process. He said the Iraqi government recognizes the value of benchmarks as a means of framing its goals.
“These are benchmarks which all sides agree are important, which all sides agree are useful as tools to show to their public that there is a process forward, there is a set of things which the Iraqi government wishes to do, intends to do,” he said.
Satterfield said the security situation in Iraq is not satisfactory and that a failure to set benchmarks and move forward simultaneously on the security, political and economic tracks could threaten the situation further.
“[T]he consequences of not meeting benchmarks are first and foremost consequences for the Iraqi people,” he said. “The impact is on them in terms of security, political and economic developments that are not achieved and negative developments that do take place in the absence of progress in a positive sense.”
Satterfield said that although the political benchmarks are primarily an internal Iraqi matter, Iraqi leaders would consult with coalition forces regarding security benchmarks and with World Bank officials regarding economic benchmarks.
He said the United States has confidence in the ability of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to deal with the difficult political decisions confronting Iraq.
“We understand fully the very difficult circumstances that attain in Iraq today, and we understand fully how difficult the decisions are, which the Iraqi leadership, which the Iraqi government has to take -- difficult decisions on security, difficult decisions on political reconciliation, but these are critical decisions and they must be confronted,” he said.
“Now these decisions are all for the Iraqi government, the sovereign Iraqi government to make,” he said. “But they are decisions that cannot be deferred without costs to the Iraqi people and the interests of a stable, peaceful, democratic Iraq.”
“We do look to Prime Minister Maliki to take these decisions,” he said. “We do have confidence in his leadership.”
A transcript of Satterfield’s remarks is available on the State Department Web site.
For more information on U.S. policy, see Iraq Update.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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