INTERVIEW-Iraqi govt could collapse if security plan fails
Source: Reuters
By Mariam Karouny BAGHDAD, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Iraq faces dire consequences including the collapse of its government if a major U.S.-backed security plan to curb sectarian violence fails, a senior leader from the dominant Shi'ite bloc said on Tuesday. Saying the security clampdown would last at least until November, Khaled al-Attiya, a deputy speaker of parliament, told Reuters in an interview: "If we want the Iraq that we longed for and worked for, then those political forces which suffered under the former regime ... must get together and make this work." Failure would also, he believed, see the end of U.S. support as President George W. Bush would be forced to change course. Such fears among the Shi'ite majority, oppressed by Saddam Hussein and brought to power in U.S.-backed elections, raise hopes in Washington that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's cabinet will finally tackle Shi'ite militias and death squads as part of its crackdown. "We have real worries and see real dangers that if, God forbid, this plan fails ... then there will definitely be perilous consequences," he told Reuters in his office in the heavily fortified Green Zone government compound in Baghdad. "It is very, very dangerous. One consequence may be a collapse of government," added Attiya, an independent member of Maliki's United Alliance bloc and a religious sheikh. Tasting power in the Sunni Muslim-dominated Arab world for the first time in centuries, the Shi'ite Islamist establishment is anxious not to lose its hold on Iraq and its vast oil wealth. Maliki and Bush are adding thousands of Iraqi and U.S. troops in the capital to try to smother sectarian violence. "I think all the Shi'ite parties are now aware of how dangerous the issue is," Attiya said. "We don't have a choice." LAST CHANCE FOR BUSH Attiya echoed a Shi'ite worry that American support was growing thin. Domestic political pressure on Bush had forced him to apologise for past errors in a speech last week in which he urged Americans to back his plan to send more troops. "We don't expect Bush can come out to his people again and apologise for his mistakes. He will take another course. "He said he made mistakes but he is still supporting the political process and the government. But I don't think that if this plan doesn't work ... that he can continue." Maliki has said the plan will target militants regardless of their religion, raising expectations in the United States that he will crack down on the Mehdi Army militia of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The Pentagon calls the Mehdi Army the biggest threat to Iraq but Sadr is a political ally of Maliki. Maliki has said in the past he will deal with that issue politically, despite U.S. complaints that political interference had prevented previous attempts to arrest or kill militiamen. Attiya said, however, that it was important to distinguish Sadr and his political movement from the Mehdi Army, which he said was infiltrated by Saddam's former Baathist supporters. "We have to differentiate between Moqtada and the Sadrist bloc ... from armed groups operating outside the law which may be infiltrated by groups related to the former regime," he said. Some senior Shi'ite officials say privately they believe the Mehdi Army is jeopardising all Shi'ite gains in Iraq and have urged Maliki and Sadr to tackle the death squad killers. "Moqtada has announced that he has no militia. We go on the assumption that this true and the government will deal with him accordingly," Attiya said. "This plan does not target the Sadrists because part of this movement is a real partner in the political process."
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