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Skriven 2006-07-21 23:33:28 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0607217) for Fri, 2006 Jul 21
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Background Briefing by a Senior Administration Official on Iraqi Prime
Minister Maliki's Visit
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 21, 2006

Background Briefing by a Senior Administration Official on Iraqi Prime
Minister Maliki's Visit
Via Teleconference


˙˙˙˙˙ In Focus: Renewal in Iraq

5:09 P.M. EDT

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Hi, everyone. I'm sorry to have kept you
waiting a couple of minutes on this call. And again, as my colleague
mentioned, I'm sorry this is not at the most convenient time during the
week, 5:00 p.m. on a Friday. But I do appreciate you taking the time to do
this. I know that people's eyes have been other parts of the Middle East
for the best part of this week. But I did welcome the opportunity to tell
you a little bit about Prime Minister Maliki's trip that will be happening
next week, and also to give you a little broader context about just what
has happened in Iraq since the President visited just about five weeks ago.

What I thought I might first do is talk a little bit about just the
schedule, kind of the nuts and bolts, and the who he'll be seeing, and
where he'll be visiting, and then, like I said, I'll go into the more
contextual points.

I think the overall big point at this -- this is really a quintessential
working visit. It's not a pomp and circumstance visit, it's very much an
opportunity to get some work done, to have an opportunity for the President
and the Prime Minister, who have really already started to build a personal
relationship, as I think any of the people on the call who were with the
President when he went to Baghdad got a feeling for that.

Basically the President -- the Prime Minister will arrive -- I'm not going
to give out times, of course, but he'll arrive in Washington on Monday
evening, after he visits London for a brief period earlier that day, and
he'll be coming from Iraq. The bulk of his schedule in Washington is on
Tuesday and Wednesday. He'll leave Thursday morning to go to New York, and
then he'll head back to the Middle East.

On Tuesday, he'll spend a real big chunk of the day with the President,
beginning first by having breakfast with the National Security Advisor,
Steve Hadley, and then meeting with the President in an Oval Office meeting
where the Prime Minister will have a number of his ministers with him. He's
bringing several of his important ministers -- it's interesting, he's
bringing his oil minister and his electricity minister, as well as a few
others in the Oval Office. He'll then do a joint press availability after
that, and then there will be a working lunch. The rest of the afternoon for
the Prime Minister will be primarily meeting other Cabinet secretaries in
the U.S. government.

On Wednesday, he'll be going up and spending quite a bit of time in
Congress, really the first half of the day he'll be up on the Hill. Then
he'll spend some time with our troops, and then he'll meet with, again,
more Cabinet officials -- DNI Negroponte and others -- and then he'll spend
some time meeting with prominent non-governmental people in the Iraqi -- or
in the Washington area. And then there's a couple of things still up in the
open in terms of what he's going to do for dinner that night. And there's
also talk about whether there will be more opportunity for him to talk to
the press. And as I mentioned, he will be going to New York on Thursday,
and that will be Thursday morning. And his schedule is still being firmed
up there, but he's looking at the possibility of making some public remarks
up in New York, as well.

So that is the schedule, and if you just bare with me a little bit longer,
what I'd actually really like to do is spend just a few minutes talking
about the context of this visit. And some people have asked, is this a
great time for him to be visiting Washington, and I would say, certainly
it's an appropriate time for them to be visiting together. They are, again,
building on the relationship that they began to solidify on a personal,
face-to-face level in Baghdad in June, and that's been about five weeks,
and it's actually -- it's a good amount of time, and a lot of things have
transpired in that time for the two leaders to come together and talk about
the situation.

Since they met in Baghdad, there's been some progress on a number of the
key priorities that Prime Minister Maliki laid out for the President, or
sort of identified for the President. I think many of you will remember
that the President came back from Iraq, and one of the things that he was
most impressed with was that Maliki was able to identify a number of
political priorities, and that these struck the President as the right
ones, and that also he didn't have a list of 101 things that he was going
to do in the first 60 days -- that this, much more, these are the things
that are most critical to Iraq's success.

So he's made some progress on those key priorities, and there's been some
disappointments, as well. So the idea is for the two of them to get
together. And I'm sure the President will begin by reaffirming U.S. support
for Iraq and for Maliki's government, and then I expect that they'll get
into a pretty hands-on kinds of discussions about some of the key issues.

And just to flag some of the categories, as I mentioned, since the
President was in Baghdad, Prime Minister Maliki announced a reconciliation
plan, and the Baghdad security plan started around that time, as well. He's
also announced an economic plan, and he's embarked on some personal
diplomacy to help with Iraq's relationship with some of the Arab states.

And I'll just take a couple of minutes to highlight a few things in each of
these areas, really beginning with political reconciliation. The
expectation is that on this coming Saturday there will be the first meeting
of the National Reconciliation Council, or what they're calling the
National Council for Reconciliation and Dialogue. This will be probably the
most prominent thing that has happened since Maliki has rolled out his
initiative and made reconciliation a priority.

So while we understand that he's gotten a number of groups expressing
interest and talking to him about reconciliation and there's been a mixed
reaction, but generally a positive reaction from many Sunni groups about
the reconciliation plan, this will be the most tangible thing that has
happened thus far. And during the last five weeks there has been a rise in
violence in Baghdad, and a rise in the sectarian violence. And that's
obviously something that they'll be talking quite a bit about.

But at the same time, there's also been a number of things that may be
below people's radars that demonstrate that there's still -- in fact, I'd
like to put it that this country is trying to pull itself together, it's
not trying to pull itself apart. You've seen a lot of solidarity between
Sunni and Shia organizations. And Ayatollah Sistani just yesterday issued
another statement talking about Iraqi solidarity and the need to overcome
pressures on the Shia and Sunni communities.

There's also a committee in the Parliament that has begun its work on
looking at the de-Baathification issue, which is one of the things that
Maliki announced would be part of his reconciliation initiative. They're
looking at the current de-Baathification program and how it could be
modified to be potentially more of a judicial program than it is currently
a political program.

On the economic side, I think there, there's been more positive
developments than I think most people realize, just because I think it's
been drowned out a little bit. But some of you will be well aware that Iraq
in this period, in the last two months, has realized its highest oil
production and export levels since before the war. Over the course of 2006,
in the first six or seven months, exports were averaging about 1.47 million
barrels a day. And in June, they were at 1.67. So that's a significant
increase.

And there's also been an increase in hours of power and electricity. Still
-- can't fool anyone here -- still the numbers are very, very low. But in
Baghdad, they were around three to five hours in April and May, and now
they're up to about eight hours.

And that is, in part, a reflection of the new electricity minister and the
electricity plan that he's put in place that has resulted in a number of
initiatives on the security front, but also on things like rapid repair,
getting up cables faster when they come down, those kinds of things.

Also, Prime Minister Maliki made a speech to the Iraqi assembly laying out
his economic program. And it was really the first time I think you had an
Arab leader in decades put on the record that there would be change in key
areas -- in new investment laws, anti-corruption initiatives, restored
financial relationships with Gulf states, and initiatives to improve
essential services. And he's started to follow up by instituting changes.
And it's particularly notable on the corruption front. He is talking to his
Cabinet members, directed them to establish comptrollers in their agencies
and submit financial disclosure forms. He's submitted the investment law to
parliament, and there's some other liberalization laws which are pending.
So there's been a number of small steps, but, again, indications that he is
moving from his announcement plan to his implementation plan.

I think on the international front, there has been an initiative called
International Compact which many of you have probably heard the U.N. or the
Iraqi government or our own President talk about in the last month or so.
It's basically an initiative that the U.N. and the Iraqi government will
co-chair much along the lines of the Afghan Compact, where Iraq will agree
to certain reforms and commitments, primarily on the economic side, but
maybe a bit in the security and political sides, as well. And in return for
making those sorts of reforms that will put Iraq on a better path to
self-sufficiency; the international community will find additional ways to
support Iraq in that transition.

And then finally, just on the security side, as I mentioned a little bit
earlier that as we're all aware, the last month has been a very difficult
month for Iraq on the security front, that there has been an increase in
violence, particularly in Baghdad, really. And that violence in Baghdad is
not exclusively but largely of a sectarian nature. There has been a Baghdad
security plan in place for about five weeks now, and I would say it's fair
to say that the results -- or the initial results of that plan have been
disappointing.

The Prime Minister has talked about that. I think our own commanders are
probably on record talking about that the plan has not had the results
anticipated. So what General Casey and General Dempsey and our other
commanders in the field are doing, they are in the process of working with
Maliki and his security ministers to make adjustments to the plan because
Baghdad is such a critical part of stabilizing Iraq that there needs to be
-- they assessed that a month was generally the right amount of time to see
if what they were doing was having the right effect.

So overall, I think that security will figure very large in their bilateral
conversations; they'll probably get down to some very specific
conversations about what's going on in Baghdad, what can be done to improve
the situation there, what we can be doing to adjust our strategies. When I
say, "we," I mean both the Iraqis and the United States.

I'm happy to take questions. I think I will stop there because I'm
beginning to feel like I'm talking to myself.

Q Do you think that the President and the Prime Minister will come out of
this meeting with a specific plan on improving security?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think that they -- it is possible that
they will come out with agreement on certain kinds of steps that need to be
taken. But I think that it's important for me to stress that the more
tactical decisions -- i.e., about the possible deployments of troops from
one part of the country, whether it's ISF or coalition troops -- will be
made in Baghdad, and possibly discussed here in Washington when they come,
but that General Casey is engaging Maliki on those kinds of decisions.

But I think that it's very possible there could be some concrete agreements
that could be made during the trip about shifts in emphasis, shifts in
resources, those kinds of things.

Q Thank you.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Sure.

Q Yes, I was wondering, will Prime Minister Maliki be traveling with an
interpreter?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I believe that he will have -- first of
all, the Prime Minister speaks Arabic and is not an English speaker. So he
will have his own interpreter. The President generally uses his
interpreters in the meetings that the two of them do, although it's
possible Maliki could bring his along, as well.

Q Okay, thank you.

Q Hi, it's Olivier. A quick question on -- we've been asking about Prime
Minister Maliki's comments about Israel's "criminal" strikes in the Middle
East, and every time we ask we get told that the President is going to
raise this issue during their meeting. What is the President going to say?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think there will be a discussion. I would
say that it's an opportunity for both leaders to talk about how they see
the situation. It will be an opportunity for our President to lay out a
little bit more about how he sees the situation in the Middle East and what
the overall trends are, and that here the situation is one where things are
interlinked, and the role of Iran and the role of Syria and the role of
Hezbollah. So I think that will be the nature of the discussion.

I think really the Prime Minister's comments -- our reaction is this is --
may be the one kind of demonstration of the fact that we're dealing with a
sovereign government here, and in fact, it's not a government that takes an
American position on everything.

Q Hi, I'd like to ask you about the Prime Minister's address to Congress,
and just wondering whether or not the U.S. is advising him at all in his
speech, if he's asked for any advice. What would you like to hear him talk
about, what kind of messages would you like to hear him raise during his
address?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I can say I certainly -- I have not seen
his speech, I have not heard the discussion of what's in the speech. Our
ambassador, Zal Khalilzad is talking to Maliki often about the trip, about
the logistics of the trip and the different parts of the trip and the
possible meetings. So I don't doubt that they've had a discussion about it,
but Maliki is preparing his comments by himself, of course. And I don't
expect to see them before the rest of the country sees them.

I think in terms of what we would anticipate that he would address in
Congress, he has in other forums demonstrated or expressed his thankfulness
to the American people and particularly to the American troops that are in
Iraq or have been Iraq for the sacrifices that they have made for Iraq. So
I imagine that that would be one of the themes that we'll hear.

But I also think that he'll probably spend quite a bit of time explaining
-- he's the leader of this country, and that this is his plan for improving
the situation there, and for stabilizing the situation and bringing Iraq to
a better security environment and political situation that contributes to a
more stable security environment. So I imagine that he'll lay out a lot of
his own agenda and a lot of the steps that he's taken, and basically his
vision for his country, which I think certainly will be of interest. And
it's important for the United States to hear from him directly.

Q If I could just follow up very quickly, when you said that you expect
that he'll write it himself, do you literally mean that he will write it
himself, or that his foreign -- his advisors will write it for him? Do you
know?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: That's a good distinction. I don't know
exactly if he has the pen the whole time or not, so I wasn't trying to say
that. I was just basically trying to say we're not involved in writing his
comments or giving him text or anything of that nature.

Q Okay, thank you.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: He's somebody with actually a lot of press
experience, and it sort of distinguishes him from some of the earlier Iraqi
leaders who didn't have an experience for the press. He used to be a
spokesman, so I know that he does like to do a lot of this stuff
personally.

Q Thanks very much.

Q I guess I'd like to ask a two-part question. One is, is there an obvious
change that can be made to the security strategy, particularly in Baghdad
right now? And the second part of the question is, do you all now think
that there is, indeed, a civil war going on as more and more people seem to
be saying?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I'm sorry, the second part of the question
-- I didn't hear the first part then.

Q Do you now --

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Do we -- okay --

Q Do you now agree that there is a civil war going on?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Okay, the first part about is there a
chance in the security strategy in Baghdad from the previous time -- and I
think that we will hear, after the two leaders get together, we'll hear
more of the details about the change, if anything -- I know, in fact, there
are changes under consideration, but I think by that point, they'll be in a
position to talk about them more publicly, because right now I think they
are still consulting about it.

I would put it in terms of a shift of emphasis, a shift in the way of using
forces. There's an open question about whether there will be forces, there
will be -- whether more forces will come from other parts of the country.

I also think one of the things that we have seen over the last -- really
put it over the last 10 days or so, which is notable, is more of an effort
to go after individuals who are leaders or instigators of sectarian
violence. And you've probably seen press reports of more leaders being
picked up in Baghdad and around Baghdad, and actually in Basra, as well.
One of the leaders of the Jaish al-Mahdi leaders in Basra was picked up
over the course of the last week, as well. And that is a new development,
and one that I think there's broad agreement has to be part of a successful
strategy, there has to be this going after the people who are provoking the
violence on that side. So that's what I would say to that.

In terms of the civil war question, I would simply say that there has been
a rise in sectarian violence, but that in itself does not constitute a
civil war, that what you really can see when you look at the individual
developments in Iraq over the last few months, again, this country is
trying to pull itself together. You see its leadership is trying to come
together and find tangible ways, rhetorical ways, symbolic ways of
underscoring the importance of maintaining Iraq at the expense of
empowering different sectarian groups.

There's a poll, which I don't have in front of me right now, but that I
would recommend to you from the International Republican Institute that
just came out a couple of days ago. And it's from June, so it's just --
it's within the last month or so. And they asked the question about, do you
support breaking up Iraq into different parts along sectarian lines? And
I'm sorry I don't have it in front of me to give you the exact amount, but
it was over 70 percent of Iraqis really rejected that idea.

So again, I think there is a lot to point to the fact that -- not trying to
diminish the reality that there is a real problem with sectarianism, that
sectarian violence in Baghdad is on the rise, and that it is one of the
most serious problems that this government has to deal with, but at the
same time, that this government is still acting as a national government,
it still has members at the most senior levels working to create an agenda
that is not a sectarian agenda, and one that will advance the interests of
the country as a whole.

Q Thanks.

Q Hi, you may have answered this question as far as you can in the previous
answer, but if I could just press you a little bit more on the security
situation.

You said that the tactical decisions are largely going to be made by
General Casey and the security ministers in Baghdad. I guess I'd sort of
raise the question of what's left. If they're going to make decisions on
troops and where they're going and how many, other than this initiative
about going after leaders, what is left for the two of them to talk about
with a new strategy?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think they can talk about -- I guess
there's not a lot more I can say on this -- but they can talk about the
developments of the Iraqi security forces, how that's going, if the
emphasis or the emphases are in the right place. They can talk about the
Ministry of Interior, which in fact the Prime Minister has acknowledged is
in need of reform. They can talk about -- there's a range of security
issues that don't require tactical shifts, putting troops here or there.
They can talk about operational concepts -- what's the operational concept
behind what they're doing in Baghdad versus what they're doing in Ramadi
versus what's happening in Basra.

And let me just underscore what we all take to be a given, is that any time
there's a situation like the one in Baghdad, doesn't just have a security
solution. It's both a security and a political and to some extent an
economic solution, but heavy on the security and the political.

So I think the President will be also looking to Maliki very much, what is
being done by Iraq's leaders to really rally people to push back against
sectarianism, and to do -- what kind of leadership is being exerted to get
that message out.

And I think we see parts of it -- as I said, we expect that this National
Council for Reconciliation and Dialogue will meet on Saturday. That will be
a new institution, there will be new faces, and they will be delivering a
message of national unity.

So I think there's a lot to discuss, even if they're not discussing about
what battalion goes where.

Q Okay. And just to get to the first two points you made, which is the
development of the Iraqi security forces and sort of making sure resources
are in the right place, is there maybe some discussion or hopefully some
agreement on the mix of Iraqi versus coalition troops in Baghdad? There has
been a lot of talk of the Iraqis actually have taken over quite a bit of
battle space in Baghdad.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Right.

Q Is there any thought about moving, changing that mix, maybe having the
Americans move back in some of those areas? Is that perhaps on the table?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I've got to be careful how I say this, not
to leave you with the wrong impression, that certainly would be an
appropriate thing for them to discuss. I can't tell you that there is going
to be necessarily any sort of announcement to that effect.

Q Okay, thank you very much.

Q Thanks for doing this. Trying to get the larger picture of trying to
reverse this dynamic. On the sectarian side, we've been looking at this
obviously getting worse and worse, not better and better -- even with the
unity government. How at some point can you sort of change this? The forced
migration issue seems to be on the rise, more and more people being forced
from their homes and neighborhoods. Each of these kind of developments
builds on the other, and I'm not sure there's any dramatic -- I'm not sure
what dramatic gestures are left to try to change that momentum. Can you
talk about -- is there anything? Or is this a very long process to try to
change that?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: If your question amounts to is there sort
of a quick fix or a silver bullet, I would agree with that, no, there's not
-- there's a multitude of trends, and that reversing them will take a lot
of effort across a range of areas on the security and political side, and
that the time frame for this will be gradual.

But all that said, I do think that the situation in Baghdad is one that if
there starts to be improvement in that city that that will have positive --
I guess, the word is reverberations throughout the country. So that is one
of the reasons why Baghdad is so heavily on the minds both of the Prime
Minister and the President.

Q So the answer then essentially is that there are no grand gestures at
this point?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No. Grand gestures -- there's no one single
thing that can be done in a short time frame to produce immediate results,
that's true. But whether or not there are any tools left in the arsenal to
tackle sectarianism, my answer is, yes, there are. And I would put those in
the category some of them are political, and that is forging ahead with the
reconciliation plan in all of its dimensions, whether it's the
de-Baathification commission I mentioned, whether it's the detainee release
program that the Prime Minister has already released large numbers of
detainees, whether it's dialogue between the Iraqi government and other
parts of society, or whether it's sort of a national dialogue through the
committees that I mentioned.

And there's also steps that can be taken in a security situation -- again,
the Baghdad situation being so critical -- steps to hopefully improve that
situation. Again, it won't be dramatic; it won't be overnight, but that
that will have a very real impact on the overall situation in the country.

Q Thank you.

Q I have a question about politics. Can you tell us what the message that
the President is trying to send this week to the Iraqi people and to the
American people out of this meeting? What's the kind of political message
you're trying to send with this meeting?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: What's the message that we're trying to
send, or -- I'm sorry, I lost you for a bit there -- or that the Prime
Minister is trying to send?

Q No, I was going to try to say, from the American point of view, there's a
political message that I assume you want to send both to the Iraqi people
and also to the Americans, and I'm wondering if you could describe what
that message would be?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think at the most basic level, the
message would be one of a continued commitment to Iraq, one of -- kind of a
sense of pragmatism, that we are cognizant of the challenges in Iraq -- we,
meaning both the Prime Minister and the President -- and that we are
working very diligently to constantly assess the tools and the approaches
we're using to tackle those challenges, and adjusting them where we're
necessary.

So our commitment is still there, that our interest in -- or our major
national security interest in a successful Iraq is as essential as ever,
and that we are engaged from the President on down at constantly adjusting
our strategy so that we have the greatest chances of success.

Q One other question, just on the sectarian violence. Does the President
feel that the Prime Minister is doing all that he can to address
sectarianism within the security forces and the military in Iraq? And is he
going to use this as an opportunity to ask him to do more, or to do
anything specifically?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I can't say at this point, because the
meeting hasn't happened, whether or not he'll make specific requests of
him. I think that the tone of the overall meeting, I expect it to be one --
a definite one of partnership, but also that the President will be pushing
on Prime Minister Maliki to take the steps that he can take to address this
situation, to underscore that he can be sure of American support for taking
those hard steps.

And we've seen that he's been willing to take some of those steps,
particularly in the arrests that I mentioned just a short while ago. That's
an indication that he is making some tough decisions that have possible
security and political implications for him, but that he recognizes that
the situation won't improve unless he moves forward on those fronts.

Q Thanks.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Sure.

Q There was an emphasis when Bush was in Baghdad that the future of Iraq
was in the hands of the Iraqis. Do you all worry that Maliki's visit here
will again fuel the perception that the United States is holding the reins
on this whole thing?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I'm not concerned about that because I
think that there's plenty of room for that to be true, while it also to be
true that we are heavily invested in the success of Iraq. And so we have
enormous interests in how it's progressing and in supporting its government
and supporting the Prime Minister in his efforts to be successful.

So I think that the two messages of partnership and commitment on the part
of the United States for leaders who are doing the right things, who are
making the right choices is compatible with -- ultimately it's up to Iraqis
to make the situation in Iraq work. And I think that's more true than ever
given the increasing sectarian challenges.

Q I got back in line. You said at the outset of your comments that this is
going to be quintessential working visit, not pomp and circumstance, and
the opportunity to get some work done. I'm just wondering what is at the
top of the President's list of deliverables that he would like to get from
Maliki during this working visit?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I would put it, just if I might phrase the
question a little bit differently, what is on the top of the President's
list in terms of things that he wants to talk to Maliki frankly about and
to strategize with him jointly about, and I would put the situation in
Baghdad very high on the list. And I would put the efforts at
reconciliation right alongside because the two are really intertwined.

Thank you all, thanks for your time, and have a good weekend.

END 5:28 P.M. EDT

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