WASHINGTON – The leader of a key Shiite Muslim faction in the Iraqi government told President Bush on Monday that his country’s problems could not be solved by calling on his nation’s neighbors or other international players, as a blue-ribbon commission is about to recommend.
The remarks by Abdelaziz Hakim, leader of the largest Shiite bloc in the Iraqi Parliament, gave the president an important Baghdad ally in his opposition to such an overture to Iran or Syria, two days before the bipartisan Iraq Study Group is scheduled to deliver its report.
“We reject any attempts to have a regional or international role in solving the Iraqi issue,” Hakim said after the meeting. “Iraq should be in a position to solve Iraqi problems.”
The Iraqi specifically rejected any sort of international conference to solve Iraq’s problems, a White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as required by White House ground rules. And Bush underscored his concerns in the private meeting, speaking directly “about Iran and Syria and the critical need for them to respect Iraqi sovereignty and stop destructive activity that undermines Iraq,” the official said.
The Bush administration has promoted Hakim as a moderate voice in the Iraqi political spectrum despite ties he formed during 20 years of exile spent largely in Iran.
Hakim’s invitation to the Oval Office gave Bush an opportunity to hear an informed voice on Iran, as well as a potential courier for any messages from Washington, D.C., to the leadership in Tehran, the Iranian capital. The meeting followed a week of Bush administration diplomacy on the Middle East that ended in disappointment for the White House after Arab leaders expressed concern over growing instability in Iraq and elsewhere.
On Monday, Bush renewed his declaration, in Hakim’s presence, that he was “not satisfied with the pace of progress in Iraq,” but that he wanted to continue “to work with the sovereign government (there).”
Even as Hakim said that the political solution must come from within Iraq, he reached out for assistance from what he said was “the international level and the regional level in order to defeat terrorism.” He also said that he and Bush had discussed the arms and training that Iraq would need to meet its security needs.
The two met privately for about 20 minutes and with aides for nearly an hour. A total of 50 minutes had been allotted for the two meetings.
On Wednesday, Bush will be presented with the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, which has been exploring options for Iraq. And on Thursday, Bush will see British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his closest ally in the U.S.-led war, now in its fourth year. Bush also plans to meet next month with Iraq’s Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi.
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