Iraqi Leader Disavows U.S. Timetable
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: October 25, 2006
BAGHDAD, Oct. 25 — Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq today distanced himself from the American notion of a time line on political measures the Iraqi government should take, and he criticized a raid carried out by American forces against the leader of a Shiite death squad.
Speaking in Baghdad just hours before President Bush gave a press conference in Washington, Mr. Maliki tailored his remarks for his own domestic audience, reassuring the millions of Shiites who form his power base that he would not bend to pressure by the American government, or any other, over how to conduct Iraqi affairs.
“I want to stress that this is a government of the people’s will and no one has the right to set a timetable for it,” he said at a press conference broadcast on national television.
“This is an elected government and only the people who elected the government have the right to make time limitations or amendments,” he said.
His comments drew a stark contrast with the message given on Tuesday by the two top American officials in Iraq, General George W. Casey Jr. and Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who sought to reassure the American public about the course of the war, and said a timetable for political measures had been agreed upon with the Iraqi government.
As the violence here increases and midterm elections in the United States near, Mr. Maliki has come under pressure from the Bush administration to step up efforts to control the killing. His task is personally daunting, in large part because the very forces that elevated him to power - religious Shiite parties with their own militias - are complicit in the killing.
His remarks today were a public display of that tension...
...More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/25/world/middleeast/26iraqcnd.html?hp&ex=1161835200&en=5eacc2b4e7858dd6&ei=5094&partner=homepage 
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