Ambassador faults Iraqi political process

The Bush administration has long supported the Iraqi prime minister.

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The top U.S. diplomat in Iraq on Tuesday called the country’s political progress “extremely disappointing” and warned that support for the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is not unlimited.

Ambassador Ryan Crocker’s remarks to reporters were the harshest criticism yet by a Bush administration official of al-Maliki’s government and may be a prelude to what he’ll tell Congress in a report that he and Army Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, will give next month.

“The progress on the national level issues has been extremely disappointing and frustrating to all concerned — to us, to Iraqis, to the Iraqi leadership itself,” Crocker said.

“We do expect results, as do the Iraqi people, and our support is not a blank check.”

The Bush administration has long met criticism of al-Maliki with words of support, but in the past few months al-Maliki’s government has been unraveling as factions have resigned from Cabinet posts or announced boycotts.

Critical of U.S.

Al-Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, also has been openly critical of U.S. efforts to bring former Sunni insurgents into the Iraqi security forces, saying that some of the former insurgents are potential enemies of his government.

Crocker acknowledged Tuesday that the decision by some Sunni tribes in Anbar to align themselves with the United States against al-Qaida in Iraq wasn’t a sign of reconciliation between Iraq’s Sunni minority and the Shiite-led government.

“It is probably an essential prerequisite for reconciliation,” he said. “But it isn’t reconciliation.”

Meanwhile, al-Maliki made his first official visit to Syria, which the U.S. has long criticized for allowing foreign fighters to enter Iraq. Last week, al-Maliki visited Iran, where he was seen laughing and smiling with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.