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Iraq

Talabani visits ayatollahs

2005-11-22

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani began a landmark visit to Iran yesterday, the first by an Iraqi head of state in nearly four decades, in a clear effort to win more help in battling the insurgency raging in his country. Iranian officials said Talabani was to spend three days in the Islamic republic for a series of high-level talks centered on security issues. Iranian media said his delegation includes Iraqi national security adviser Muwaffaq Rubaie. Ties between Iran and Iraq’s new authorities have been relatively close, with Baghdad’s new government dominated by Kurdish figures like Talabani and Shiites once backed by Tehran during Saddam’s rule. But relations remain clouded by allegations of Iranian support for insurgents fighting US and British troops in Iraq. Iran denies meddling, and blames the violence on the very presence of foreign forces. Talabani is scheduled to meet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, top national security official Ali Larijani and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. Iranian media said he is also expected to meet supreme leader Ali Khamenei. The last Iraqi head of state to tour Iran was Abdel Rahman Aref, Iraq’s president between 1966 and 1968. Talabani’s visit comes hot on the heels of a trip to Tehran by the Iraqi national security adviser last week, which ended with the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Larijani.

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Iraq-Jordan

Saddam trial to go live on TV, but trial date not yet set

2005-08-02

The trial of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein will be shown on live television, Iraq's top security adviser has announced. The trial will show the Arab and Muslim world "that this is going to be a fair, just trial with a defence counsel in there, with a proper prosecuting counsel as well there", Iraqi national security adviser Muwaffaq Rubaie told CNN. "And everybody will watch this trial live on television." An Iraqi tribunal filed the first charges last month against Saddam over the 1982 killing of 143 residents of the village of Dujail, northeast of Baghdad, where he had been the target of a failed assassination bid. No date for his trial has been set. The announcement over his trial came ahead of a confirmation in Iraq's parliament that a constitutional committee would submit a draft document for debate by an August 15 deadline. A national conference of top political leaders will take place on Thursday to help iron out remaining differences on the constitutional draft. Unresolved issues include federalism and how it will work, and whether the Kurds, in their semi-autonomous area in the country's north, should be allowed a future vote on self-determination. There is also disagreement on the division of revenue between the federal government and the regions, on the status of the ethnically tense city of Kirkuk, on whether Kurdish and Arabic should be official languages and on the role of Islam in the constitution.

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Iraq-Jordan

Iraqi official says US troop reduction "realistic"

2005-08-01

A top Iraqi official said on Sunday the idea of reducing the number of the 100,000 plus US troops deployed in Iraq would be possible by next year. Muwaffaq Rubaie, the Iraq national security advisor, told the CNN in an interview that Iraqi Security Forces are on the right track to take over security responsibility from the multinational forces. But he declined to say how many troops will be withdrawn from Iraq to keep insurgents in Iraq puzzling. "We hope by the end of the year probably more than a third of this security force, Iraqi security force, are going to be able to operate independently.

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Iraq-Jordan

Martial law threatened for Iraq

2004-06-18

Iraq's incoming government is considering imposing martial law to help stabilise the country after another two car bomb attacks on Thursday killed at least 41 Iraqis. The blasts were the latest in a spate of increasingly well-organised attacks, including suicide attacks against foreign civilians working for the US-led coalition, an assassination of a senior Iraqi official, and the sabotage of military and industrial targets. Co-ordinated strikes on Iraq's oil pipelines in the north and south of the country have reduced exports to a trickle and depleted the country's prime source of revenue. The escalating violence has forced the new interim government of Ayad Allawi to consider assuming broader security powers in the aftermath of the June 30 transition. "A decision to impose martial law could be taken if the attacks continue," said Hazem Shaalan, the defence minister. Wonder how the LLL will react to that? Muwaffaq Rubaie, national security adviser, confirmed to the Financial Times on Thursday that the idea of declaring a form of martial law was under active consideration by Iraqi ministers. The debate highlights the dilemma for the new Iraqi government, which is trying to establish order without jeopardising its democratic credentials. Such laws carry uncomfortable echoes of the legal fabrications used by the former regime of Saddam Hussein and many current Arab governments to justify repressive and totalitarian rule. The idea was at an early stage, Mr Rubaie said, and had not been discussed substantively with US officers. At least 130,000 American soldiers will remain in the country after an Iraqi government takes over. Mr Rubaie said a new law would need to be passed because the temporary constitution agreed in March as the basis of the new Iraqi state did not include provisions for emergency rule. "It [the new law] should not have sweeping powers. It should be limited in time and space," he said. "[But] the terrorists are shooting people on sight. You need to be a little bit more proactive, a little bit more robust." You need to defend yourselves. In an effort to win public confidence, Iraqi officials such as Mr Shaalan and Mr Rubaie have sounded increasingly belligerent in their condemnations of the spate of car-bombings and assassinations. "In the coming days we will take the battle from house to house and from street to street with all the means we possess," Mr Shaalan said on Thursday. Kofi Annan, United Nations secretary general, said that Iraq was still too dangerous for the UN to return, telling reporters in New York he was "extremely worried" about the security situation on the ground. Especially with the security team the UN had last time.

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