By NNN-KUNA
Washington : A US official said on Friday that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki needed time to prevail, but had asserted his authority over the army, which followed his orders.
“It will take a long time before the Iraqi prime minister prevails, the important thing is he took the first step in asserting authority and the Iraqi army followed his orders,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs Lawrence Butler.
“It is a long way to go before criminal organisations are reduced,” he added.
Iraqi security forces had engaged in a military operation against Shiite militias in Basra in March 25, but Muqtada Al-Sadr declared a truce with the Iraqi government last Sunday.
“The majority of ‘Jaish Al-Mahdi’ are moderates, people who are reconcilable to national government and have a future in the mainstream political life,” said Butler.
“The fight is against those who do not obey the laws of the country and respect the authority of Baghdad, the fight is not against Al-Sadr,” he added.
The US official asserted that those special groups “do not take orders from political figures … they follow their own criminal motivation.” Yet Butler, who took this Iraq related position on January 2007, did not want to speculate on how much control Sadr has over Jaish Al-Mahdi or on any role the US Embassy might have played in brokering the truce in Basra.
“The Sadr movement has been showing signs of wanting to engage in the national political process after having stepped out of it for most of the last year,” he said.
“It is very positive to have the Sunnis reengaging in Baghdad and Sadr reaching out to the prime minister and stepping away and allowing the criminal elements to be isolated,” added the US official.
Butler praised the “very encouraging” performance of the Iraqi security forces in Basra but noted that they must learn from this experience “to get stronger to not to repeat these mistakes in the future.” Chairman of the Senate’s foreign affairs committee Joe Biden drew a contrast between Israel war on Hezbollah in 2006 and the Iraqi operation against Jaish Al-Mahdi in Basra as both of them emboldened the Shiite factions.
“Hezbollah has the model of criminal non-legal authority pretending to act as a local government,” affirmed Butler commenting on Biden’s statement Thursday.
“To suggest that this is a failed operation or this simply strenghtened Jaish Al-Mahdi is a narrative of defeat which I do not agree with,” he added.
Butler asserted that what happened in Basra is not a conflict between Shiite factions but “a national authority taking on criminal elements.” He said that Iran’s involvement in providing weapons and funding to these groups “has been exposed and is deplorable.” The US official highlighted that Sunni and Kurdish political parties “stood with and behind Maliki in his effort to project authority and show that Basra is also part of the state of Iraq.”