By DPA
Washington : The Iraqi government will become more precarious during the next year and its security forces are still not capable of operating independently of the US military, the US intelligence community said in a report.
The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) concluded that Iraq’s leadership has been unable to govern effectively and faces “fundamental structural problems”, said the report released Thursday.
The NIE is a periodical assessment of the security and political situation in Iraq provided by the CIA and other intelligence agencies. A less detailed, unclassified version was published Thursday.
It concluded that during the last six months, violence in Iraq has been contained but still remains high amid terrorist attacks and sectarian strife between Sunnis and Shias.
The report bodes poorly for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who has been the target of criticism in the US. Democrats opposed to US President George W. Bush’s policy want the Iraqi parliament to replace al-Maliki, saying he is unfit to govern and incapable of fomenting political reconciliation between Iraq’s ethnic and religious groups.
Bush has acknowledged the frustration over the lack of progress by the Iraqi government but Wednesday defended al-Maliki as “a good man, with a difficult job, and I support him”.
Political reconciliation and the creation of a law for the sharing of oil revenue among Shias, Sunnis and Kurds are considered two major steps that must be taken to secure Iraq’s future but so far have not taken place.
Al-Maliki has also been seen as incapable of governing fairly because he relies on more radical Shia parties in his coalition.