Iraqi Leader Fears Ouster Over Oil Money
March 13, 2007
BAGHDAD(AP)
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki fears the
Americans will torpedo his government if parliament does not pass a law to
fairly divvy up the country's oil wealth among Iraqis by the end of June, close
associates of the leader told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
The legislature has not even taken up the draft
measure, which is only one of several U.S. benchmarks that are seen by al-Maliki
as key to continued American support, a crucial need for the survival of his
troubled administration.
Aside from the oil law, the associates said,
American officials have told the hardline Shiite Muslim prime minister that they
want an Iraqi government in place by year's end acceptable to the country's
Sunni Arab neighbors, particularly Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt.
"They have said it must be secular and
inclusive," one al-Maliki associate said.
To that end, al-Maliki made an unannounced
visit Tuesday to Ramadi, the Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold, to meet with
tribal leaders, the provincial governor and security chiefs in a bid to signal
his willingness for reconciliation to end the bitter sectarian war that has
riven Iraq for more than a year.
Compounding al-Maliki's fears about a
withdrawal of American support were visits to Saudi Arabia by two key political
figures in an admitted bid to win support for a major Iraqi political
realignment. Saudi Arabia is a major U.S. ally and oil supplier.
Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a Shiite
Muslim, flew to the Saudi capital Tuesday, a day after the arrival there of
Masoud Barzani, leader of Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdish region. Most Kurds
are Sunni Muslims.
"Allawi is there to enlist support for a new
political front that rises above sectarian structures now in place," the former
prime minister's spokesman, Izzat al-Shahbandar, told the AP.
Barzani spokesman Abdul-Khaleq Zanganah said
the two Iraqis met in Kurdistan before the trip for talks on forming a "national
front to take over for the political bloc now supporting al-Maliki."
It appears certain the United States was
informed about the Allawi and Barzani opening to the Saudis, who are deeply
concerned that al-Maliki could become a puppet of Iran, the Shiite theocracy on
Iraq's eastern border they view as a threat to the region's stability.
Washington has been reported working more
closely with Sunni Arab governments to encourage them to take a greater role in
Iraq, particularly in reining in the Sunni insurgency that has killed thousands
of U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi Shiites.
The Bush administration is believed to be
trying to win support for its operations in Iraq among Arab neighbors by
assuring a greater future role for the Sunni minority that ran the country until
the U.S. invasion ousted Saddam Hussein four years ago.
One al-Maliki confidant said the Americans had
voiced displeasure with the prime minister's government even though he has
managed so far to blunt major resistance from the Mahdi Army militia to the
joint U.S.-Iraqi security operation in Baghdad. The Shiite militia is loyal to
anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose political backing secured the
premiership for al-Maliki.
"They have said they are frustrated that he has
done nothing to oust the Sadrists, that the oil law has not moved forward, that
there is no genuine effort on reconciliation and no movement on new regional
elections," said the official, who like the other associates agreed to discuss
the situation only if not quoted by name because of the political sensitivities.
Passage of the oil law, which seeks a fair
distribution of revenues among all Iraq's sectarian and ethnic groups, has
become a major issue for the United States, which had initially counted on
financing Iraq's post-invasion reconstruction with oil revenues.
But the decrepit oil infrastructure and
violence have left the country producing oil at about the same levels as before
the war, at best, and those figures are well below production before the 1991
Gulf War that resulted in U.N. sanctions against the Iraqi oil industry.
The major Sunni bloc in parliament, along with
Allawi loyalists in the Shiite bloc, openly oppose the draft measure. Al-Maliki
also has lost the backing of the Shiite Fadila Party, and independent Shiite
members are split on the bill. Those willing to speak about their opposition
voice fears about what they see as too much possible foreign involvement and
profit sharing.
The al-Maliki associates said U.S. officials,
who they would not name, told the prime minister that President Bush was
committed to the current government but continued White House support depended
on positive action on all the benchmarks _ especially the oil law and sectarian
reconciliation _ by the close of this parliamentary session June 30.
"Al-Maliki is committed to meeting the deadline
because he is convinced he would not survive in power without U.S. support," one
of the associates said.
Standing in the way of forward movement is a
recalcitrant Cabinet, which al-Maliki has promised to reshuffle by the end of
this week. So far, however, he is at loggerheads with the political groupings in
parliament that are threatening to withdraw support for the prime minister if he
does not allow the blocs to name replacements for Cabinet positions.
