US vows to finish job in Iraq
30/11/2006| IslamWeb
The US president has praised the Iraqi prime minister as a "strong leader", vowed that US will keep troops until the "job is complete", and said that joint talks had partly focused on increasing the training of Iraq's security forces.
George Bush, speaking at a news conference with Nuri al-Maliki in the Jordanian capital Amman on Thursday, also said the Iraqi leader told him that any partition of Iraq would only increase violence.
He praised al-Maliki as the "right guy" for the job.
The US president's show of support came after US officials insisted on al-Maliki was not offended by a critical White House memo and had not snubbed Bush in Amman on Wednesday when the two had been expected to meet.
Bush said he and al-Maliki agreed in high-stakes talks that Iraq should not be partitioned into separate, semi-autonomous zones.
For his part, al-Maliki denied that Iran had any influence over Iraq or any part of the embattled capital Baghdad.
He also said Iraq will never allow any foreign control of his war-wracked country. "We have repeatedly said, and we reaffirm once more, that we will never allow anyone to control any part of Iraq," al-Maliki said, when asked about alleged Iranian interference in Iraq.
Three-way talks cancelled
Original plans for three-way talks were abandoned at the last minute but talks between Bush and al-Maliki went ahead in Jordan.
They met for a working breakfast at the hotel where Bush is staying.
Explanations for the change to the scheduled talks between Bush, al-Maliki and King Abdullah were confusing.
White House officials said the Jordanians and the Iraqis jointly decided three-way talks were not the best use of time as both parties would be meeting the president separately.
Redha Jawad Taqi, a senior aide of Shia politician Abdulaziz al-Hakim, however, said the reason for the change had been because the Iraqis believed Abdullah wanted to broaden the talks to include the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
At the same time, two senior officials travelling with al-Maliki said the Iraqi prime minister had been reluctant to travel to Jordan in the first place and decided, once in Amman, that he did not want a "third party" involved in talks about subjects specific to the US-Iraqi relations.
Meanwhile, in Iraq 30 lawmakers and five cabinet ministers loyal to Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr boycotted parliament and suspended their participation in the national unity government in protest at the meeting.
A statement released by the group said Bush's talks with al-Maliki were a "provocation to the feelings of the Iraqi people and a violation of their constitutional rights".
Al-Maliki's options
Al Jazeera's correspondent in Amman, Yasir Abu Hilala, said the atmosphere at the summit was indicative of the concerns surrounding it.
He said al-Maliki can either obtain US support to fight the Shia militias accused of killing Sunnis or he will have to depend on his political allies linked to the same militias, a move that might cost him American support or popularity.
A joint US-Jordanian statement issued on Wednesday reaffirmed support for al-Maliki's government but it also backed the political process in Iraq.
PHOTO CAPTION
U.S. President George W. Bush (R) and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of Iraq arrive for a joint press conference following their meeting in Amman November 30, 2006. (AP)