Bush Will Meet With the Leader of Iraq’s Sciri Party

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WASHINGTON — President Bush will wade into Iraqi Shiite politics today when he meets with the head of one of Iraq’s largest parties, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim today in a bid to bolster the burgeoning efforts of some Iraqi politicians to form a nonsectarian political bloc in Baghdad.

The meeting today is being spun by Bush administration officials as part of the president’s efforts to solicit advice from Congress, analysts, and the Iraqi government on a new Iraq war strategy. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and America’s ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, yesterday said Mr. Hakim, who heads the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, will be asked for his opinions on how to proceed forward.

Mr. Hakim yesterday played his hand in part in Baghdad. He told reporters that he would reject calls from Secretary-General Annan, who is set to leave his U.N. post, for an international conference to resolve grievances between Sunni Arab and Shiite Arab political parties whose militias have escalated the murder of innocents in recent months.

“It is unreasonable or incorrect to discuss issues related to the Iraqi people at international conference,” Mr. Hakim said at a press conference in Amman, Jordan.

While the White House says it is seeking Mr. Hakim’s advice on Iraq, the meeting will also go a long way in determining whether isolating the firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is a viable option for the current government in Iraq. Mr. Sadr’s Mahdi Army has been on a spree of revenge killings in Baghdad’s Sunni Arab neighborhoods. His political party also runs the Health Ministry and the hospitals.

Mr. Hadley asked in a memo last month detailing his impressions of Prime Minister Maliki whether it was possible for the Iraqi leader to distance himself from Mr. Sadr. If Mr. Maliki were to do that, he would need the implicit, if not explicit, support of Mr. Hakim’s rival party.

Mr. Hakim’s party and militia, known as the Badr Brigade, were given safe harbor as well as some training before the Iraq war by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard while it was based in Iran. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, Mr. Hakim has been in favor of an open border between Iraq and Iran and has welcomed their intervention in the country.

Since Iraqi elections, Mr. Hakim’s party has been a rival of Mr. Maliki’s Dawa Party, though both factions joined forces with Mr. Sadr in last December’s elections to form a single religious Shiite voting bloc.

The option for an Iraqi government without Mr. Sadr, who only two months ago American diplomats and generals believed was becoming more moderate and showing his commitment to the political process, could be the Bush administration’s best hope for countering recommendations to be released Wednesday from the Baker-Hamilton commission to begin withdrawals and seek a regional political conference on Iraq.

Some of the other options that the White House will likely be considering are some of the ideas put forward by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld in a November 6 memo. The memo, published this weekend by the New York Times, recommends America consider consolidating its bases, begin a program to hire Iraqi youths to turn them away from militias, and take up an aggressive military campaign against terrorists in Iraq and Iranian agents.

Many of these ideas are based on a Pentagon review of Iraq and Afghanistan war policy launched last fall by the Pentagon. Retired General Mick Kicklighter, who in 2004 worked closely with Ambassador Frank Ricciardone to plan the first Iraq transition to the interim government headed by Ayad Allawi, headed the review.

Yesterday, on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Mr. Hadley said President Bush was open to the ideas in Mr. Rumsfeld’s memo. “The president made clear he wanted to open the aperture, really have a re-look and look at a variety of ideas,” he said. “And Secretary Rumsfeld, basically, was giving a list for consideration.”


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