Rice, Straw in Iraq to break government deadlock

By Sue Pleming and Michael Georgy

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw made a surprise
visit to Baghdad on Sunday to press Iraqi leaders to form a new
government and avert a civil war.

The visit came a day after members of Prime Minister
Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s ruling Shi’ite Alliance bloc broke ranks
publicly and joined calls for him to step down to improve
chances of ending political paralysis.

“The fact that we’re going out to have these discussions
with the Iraqi leadership is a sign of the urgency which we
attach to a need for a government of national unity,” Rice told
reporters who traveled with the two ministers from Britain.

U.S. and Iraqi officials say a unity government, more than
three months after December’s election, is vital to averting
all-out war after five weeks of spiraling sectarian bloodshed.

Rice arrived in Baghdad with Straw, a day after visiting
his home region in northwest England.

The two were due to hold talks with Jaafari, who refuses to
stand aside, and other leaders including President Jalal
Talabani, a British official said. U.S. officials make little
secret of doubts about Jaafari’s ability to unite and lead
Iraq.

Straw said: “We’re committed to Iraq, but we need to see
progress and that is in everybody’s interest.”

Their efforts follow a visit last month by leading U.S.
senators who urged Iraq’s fractious politicians to bury their
differences and reach agreement.

“This is in many ways a time of testing for the Iraqi
nation and for the Iraqi people. They need a government that
can act on their behalf in this time of testing,” said Rice.

MOVE

The move against Jaafari, declared publicly by one leader
and echoed, anonymously, by others came as parties held their
latest round of talks on Saturday on a grand coalition with
Kurds and Sunnis, who are adamant in their rejection of
Jaafari.

Although Iraqi officials said they had reached a deal on
forming a national security committee designed to share out
more responsibilities among Iraq’s feuding sects, there were no
tangible signs of progress on the personnel of a new
government.

That cannot happen, officials say, until there is accord on
a prime minister — unlikely to happen while Jaafari remains.

U.S. and British officials worry that the paralysis will
widen a political vacuum and fuel violence that is becoming
more complex as Iraqis wait for their first full-term
government since the U.S. and British invasion toppled Saddam
Hussein in 2003.

Sunni insurgents, Shi’ite militias and criminal gangs are
all overlapping, deepening the country’s security crisis.

U.S. VIEW

A U.S. diplomat reiterated it was Washington’s “analysis”
that Jaafari had not scored well on two key criteria for prime
minister — his ability to unite Iraqis and his competence as a
leader. But, he stressed to reporters: “We have no preference.”

He denied comments from rival Shi’ite leaders that
President George W. Bush had directly asked them to drop
Jaafari.

“I call on Jaafari to take a courageous step and set a fine
example by stepping down,” Kasim Daoud, a senior member of the
independent group within the Alliance, told Reuters on
Saturday.

A top aide to Jaafari immediately rejected the call.

Jaafari won the Alliance nomination in an internal ballot
in February by a single vote over the candidate of the bloc’s
most powerful party, aided by Iranian-backed cleric Moqtada
al-Sadr.

But senior Alliance officials, speaking anonymously, said
four of seven main groups within the bloc now wanted him to
give up the nomination for a second term if, as is all but
certain, he fails within a day or two to persuade Sunni and
Kurdish parties to drop their refusal to serve in a cabinet
under him.

The United States, anxious for calm that would let it start
pulling out its troops, has stepped up pressure for a coalition
seen as critical to stemming sectarian violence that has killed
hundreds since a major Shi’ite shrine was bombed a month ago.

Privately, rival Alliance leaders have been turning against
Jaafari but the call on Saturday was their first public stand
against Jaafari, who critics say has failed to stem violence
and bolster the economy in his year as interim prime minister.

Some also view the soft-spoken Islamist physician’s
reliance on the Iranian-backed Sadr with suspicion.

Dozens of Jaafari supporters took to the streets in Baghdad
on Saturday, holding a mock funeral with a coffin labeled
“Democracy.”

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny and Alastair
Macdonald)