War & Peace In Iraq

[Rasputin]

At least 90 Shia pilgrims have been killed and more than 150 wounded in a double suicide bombing in the central Iraqi town of Hilla, police said.
Two bombers wearing explosive vests blew themselves up in a large crowd.

It was the deadliest in a number of attacks against pilgrims heading to the city of Karbala for a religious event.

Iraq has seen a sharp rise in violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims since an attack on a key Shia shrine in Samarra just over a year ago.

MAJOR ATTACKS
3 Feb 2007: 130 killed in lorry bomb in Baghdad's market in mainly Shia area
2 Dec 2006: More than 50 killed in car bombs in same Baghdad market
23 Nov 2006: 200 killed in wave of car bombings and mortar blasts in Baghdad's Shia Sadr City
7 April 2006: 85 killed in triple suicide bombing at Shia mosque in Baghdad
Baghdad has been at the centre of a three-week-old US-Iraqi security push, and US military commanders have been warning that militants may focus their efforts on launching attacks outside the capital.

Some commentators have suggested that the Baghdad security push, which has weakened Shia militias, has had the effect of leaving them unable to protect their communities from Sunni militants, the BBC's Andrew North reports from Baghdad.

In other attacks on pilgrims, at least 10 people were killed in car bombings and shootings in Baghdad while three were killed in two separate shootings in Latifiya, to the south.

Shia ceremony

The attack in Hilla happened in the late afternoon.

ARBAEEN CEREMONY

Arbaeen ends 40 days of mourning for Imam Hussein, grandson of Prophet Mohamed
It follows Ashura, which commemorates his slaying by Muslim rivals in 680
Imam Hussein's shrine is at Karbala
Shias were discouraged from visiting during Saddam Hussein's rule
At one local hospital, Dr Mohammed Timini told AFP news agency: "Among the wounded, there are 50 in a critical condition. Eighty percent of the casualties are young men, but there are women and children among the dead."

The attack was one of the deadliest single incidents in Iraq.

The worst single bombing since the 2003 invasion was in Baghdad early last month, when at least 130 people were killed in a lorry bombing.

Thousands of pilgrims are heading to Karbala, 100km (70 miles) south of Baghdad, to attend the Arbaeen religious ceremony.

An Iraqi woman taking part in the pilgrimage, Eman Hussein, said news of the Hilla attacks had given pilgrims a greater determination than before to reach Karbala, her son told the BBC News website from London.

Arbaeen marks the end of 40 days of mourning for Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein, who was killed along with his family in 681, by the Muslim ruler of Arabia, Yazid.

The day is one of the most solemn in the Shia calendar.

[Rasputin]

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran for the first time gave unequivocal confirmation on Wednesday it will take part in a conference on Iraq's security which will also be attended by archfoe the United States.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran would send a deputy foreign minister to Saturday's Baghdad conference bringing together world powers and Iraq's neighbours on ending the daily bloodshed in the country.

"The Iranian delegation will be headed by the deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs (Abbas Araghchi)," Mottaki told reporters.

He said Iran would take part "with the aim of helping the Iraqi government and people."

"We hope that the results of the Baghdad conference will be a clear message that the countries in the region stand by the Iraqi government in combatting instability," Mottaki added.

"Considering this attitude, we hope that the result will be that an end to the presence of foreign forces in Iraq is nearing."

Iran, which has forged strong relations with the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad after the toppling of its enemy Saddam Hussein, has repeatedly said the immediate withdrawal of US troops is the best way to stabilise Iraq.

It appears unlikely however that the conference will be the scene for bilateral talks and a thawing of relations between Iran and the United States.

The Iranian foreign ministry has said no direct talks were planned while the US ambassador in Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said that no decision had yet been taken on US-Iran talks at the meeting.

Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic relations since Washington severed ties in 1980 in the wake of the seizure of its embassy in Tehran by Islamist students.

Any direct contacts between the two sides would mark a major break in the frozen relations, which have been marked by mutual recriminations and enmity over almost three decades.

Washington has repeatedly accused Tehran of fomenting the violence in Iraq and arming Shiite extremists who have carried out deadly attacks on Iraqis and US troops. Iran vehemently denies the charges.

[Rasputin]

گزارش*ها به نقل از يك مقام ارشد آمريكايى حاكى است كه آمريكا در كنفرانس منطقه*اى عراق كه امروز در بغداد برگزار خواهد شد بطور مستقيم با ايران و سوريه رو در رو قرار مي*گيرد.
به گزارش خبرگزارى فرانسه از واشنگتن، به گفته "ديويد ساترفيلد" مشاور ارشد كاندوليزا رايس، وزير امور خارجه آمريكا در امور عراق،* واشنگتن در نشست آتى اين اتهام را عليه دمشق و تهران مطرح خواهد كرد كه آنها به خشونت*هايى دامن مي*زنند كه كشور همسايشان را تقسيم مي*كند.
ساترفيلد با اعلام اين مطلب عنوان كرد واشنگتن به تهران و دمشق فشار خواهد آورد تا بطور علنى به اتهامات مربوطه پاسخ گويند.
كنفرانس بغداد با حضور همسايگان و كشورهاى قدرتمند حاضر در سازمان ملل متحد برگزار خواهد شد.
اين روشن*ترين اظهار نظرى است كه تاكنون از سوى يك مقام آمريكايى درباره مذاكره مستقيم واشنگتن و ايران و سوريه مطرح شده است.
وى ادامه داد: ,اگر پاى ميز مذاكره، سوريه و يا ايران بخواهند درباره مسايل عراق و چگونگى تامين امنيت عراق دموكراتيك و آرام صحبت كنند ما از سر ميز مذاكره بر نخواهيم خاست.,
ساترفيلد كه در اين نشست "زلمى خليل*زاد" سفير آمريكا را نيز در كنار خويش خواهد ديد، افزود: ,آنها [ايران و سوريه] در اين كنفرانس چندجانبه در معرض اين موضوع قرار خواهند گرفتند و بايد پاسخ خود را بيان كنند. اين مسئله*اى دوجانبه نخواهد بود.,
اين مقام خاطرنشان كرد: ,آنها در اين جلسه پيام واحدى را از سوى بازيگران متعدد در منطقه خواهند شنيد. ديدگاه كسانى كه به نظر من لازم است تا جدى گرفته شود.,
وى با تكرار اتهامات گذشته واشنگتن به دمشق درباره كشورمان نيز گفت: ,ايراني*ها نيز در عين حال بار ديگر شاهد تاكيد مجدد آمريكا بر اتهامات مربوط به فراهم آوردن مواد و آموزش*هاى لازم به شبه*نظاميان شيعه در حمله به نيروهاى آمريكايى خواهند بود.,

[Rasputin]

The decision by the United States to attend a conference in Baghdad with Iran and Syria adds what many observers have felt was a "missing link" in US policy in the region.

The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that as well as the official level Baghdad meeting, foreign ministers from the same countries would also meet "as early as the first half of April".

She did not say where this meeting would be held but the talk is of Istanbul.

Nor did she say whether she would be meeting the Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki one-on-one.

The result, though, is that, having initially and forcefully rejected the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group that the US should engage with Syria and Iran, the Bush administration is now doing just that.

These will be the highest-level contacts between the US and Iran for two years.

And they might be a little more fruitful than the one in 2004 between the then US Secretary of State Colin Powell and his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharrazi. They were put side by side at a dinner in Egypt and confined their talk to innocuous chitchat.

Questions

Two questions arise immediately: why is the US doing this and what impact will it have on the issue of Iran's nuclear activities?

Part of the answer to the first came from Dr Rice in her Senate statement. Basically she said that the administration had changed its mind.

She acknowledged both the Iraq Study Group by name and pressure from the Congress. "I've had very fruitful discussions," she said.

The result is that, having initially and forcefully rejected the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group that the US should engage with Syria and Iran, the Bush administration is now doing just that.



Q&A: Iran nuclear activities
What Iran and Syria want

But another reason was outlined by White House officials who explained the recent American strategy of building up its pressure points on Iran. These, in Washington's view, were needed because at the end of last year, the US was in a very weak position.

Since then, it has got its diplomatic ducks in a row and now feels that it can afford to make this gesture from a stronger position, not as a supplicant. Washington will be demanding that Iran be more helpful to the Iraqi government.

The US pressure on Iran has grown in several ways: it has planned and begun to implement the surge of troops in Baghdad; it has ratcheted up the campaign by producing evidence against Iran linking it to explosive devices used against US forces; it has moved a second aircraft carrier into the Gulf.

It is taking advantage of a ruling by the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran has defied a deadline from the Security Council to suspend uranium enrichment and has began discussions to tighten sanctions on Iran.

It has also developed its aim of boosting the Iraqi government itself by urging it to put its own house in order.

For example, a new law on getting foreign oil companies to work in Iraq and on the sharing of revenue within Iraq has been agreed in framework.

So the US can present this change in policy over Iran as something that will bolster the Iraqi government further.

Iran on the other hand might regard the move as a sign of US weakness and another stage in the growth of its own influence in Iraq and the region.

There is another element at work as well - the influence of the secretary of state herself. At the very moment when Vice-President Dick Cheney was making threatening noises against Iran on a world tour, this initiative is announced.

Nuclear

As for nuclear issue, that remains unresolved and could yet derail any attempt to forge some kind of US-Iran rapprochement over Iraq.

Whatever talks take place between the US and Iran, the planned meetings are not expected to deal with the nuclear problem.

The administration hopes that the drip-drip of pressure on Iran will eventually produce either a change of policy on uranium enrichment, though that is unlikely, or a change of government.

At the same time, the threat of military action remains "on the table" as Mr Cheney put it.

In the new twin track American diplomacy towards Iran, tension is being reduced on one track but remains on the other.

[Rasputin]

WASHINGTON - The first direct, high-level contact in years among U.S., Iranian and Syrian representatives included "frank and sometimes jovial exchanges," Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said Saturday.


"The overall mood was businesslike, constructive," Khalilzad told reporters in a conference call after the one-day session in Baghdad. "Nobody was pounding the table."

Khalilzad and another U.S. envoy talked to Iranian and Syrian diplomats several times Saturday during a larger meeting intended to draw international support for the task of reducing violence in Iraq.

The contacts — especially between the United States and regional heavyweight Iran — overshadowed the original purpose of the meeting. The public talks with Iran were a rarity for the United States during more than a quarter century of enmity, and a possible prelude to a more cooperative relationship if not a friendly one.

Khalilzad sounded hopeful for similar face-to-face talks during a planned meeting of top diplomats from Iraq's Middle East neighbors and others, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"That certainly is a possible path for how things could develop from here," Khalilzad said.

Rice has pledged to attend such a session on Iraqi security, which probably would take place next month in Turkey.

Saturday's talks in Iraq's fortified Green Zone were limited to the situation in Iraq, where the United States accuses Iran and Syria of undermining the young democratic government and allowing or abetting terrorism and insurgent violence.

Khalilzad said he took it as a good sign that Iran and Syria both pledged support for a stable Iraq, including reconciliation among Iraq's factions.

"Those are welcome words but we will have to see what happens on the ground," Khalilzad said.

"I think one has to be cautious about exaggerating the impact of what has happened, but what has happened in my view cannot be dismissed," either, Khalilzad said. "It was a good meeting," he added, sounding pleased.

Labid Abbawi, a senior Iraqi Foreign Ministry official who attended the meeting, said that an argument broke out between the Iranian and American envoys. He would not elaborate.

Another official familiar with the discussions said that the other U.S. envoy, State Department Iraq expert David Satterfield, pointed to his briefcase during the talks and said it contained documents proving Iran was arming Shiite Muslim militias in Iraq.

"Your accusations are merely a cover for your failures in Iraq," Iran's chief envoy Abbas Araghchi shot back, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

The Baghdad talks follow a period of tough U.S. rhetoric on Iran, accompanied by the arrival of two U.S. carrier battle groups near the Iranian shores in the Persian Gulf.

Iranians increasingly fear that a U.S. attack is imminent despite President Bush's insistence that he is seeking a diplomatic resolution to the many U.S. complaints over Iran's behavior.

The U.S. and Iran severed diplomatic ties after Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran following the 1979 Islamic revolution. In the late 1990s, U.S. and Iranian envoys were part of an eight-nation group studying Afghanistan's troubles under the Taliban, and both nations took part in meetings to establish an interim Afghan government after the Taliban's fall in 2001.

In 2000, a four-member U.S. congressional delegation met with Iran's parliament speaker, Mehdi Karroubi, and others for informal talks during a worldwide gathering of lawmakers in New York.

[Rasputin]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. and Iranian envoys spoke to each other directly at a regional meeting in Baghdad on Saturday but their exchanges dealt only with problems in Iraq and not with nuclear diplomacy.

Iraq's foreign minister said the U.S. and Iranian delegates had a "lively exchange." All sides said talks were constructive and focused on Iraq.

The top Iranian official at the talks said he had no one-to-one talks with U.S. officials. He called for a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq and rejected charges of interference in the country.

"There were no one-to-one meetings, everything was in the framework of the meeting," said Abbas Araghchi, deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs.

Asked if he had direct talks with the Iranians, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, told an earlier news conference: "I did talk to them directly and in the presence of others. We engaged across the table as well."

In an interview with Tim Russert to be broadcast on Sunday morning on NBC'S "Meet the Press," he said he had shaken hands with the Iranians.

Iraq called the meeting to enlist the support of its neighbors to help end the bloodshed, but it was closely watched as a rare moment for U.S. and Iranian officials to sit down together at a time of growing tension over Iran's nuclear aims.

Washington has led international calls for tougher sanctions on Iran over its refusal to stop enriching uranium, which could be used for nuclear weapons, and it has accused Iran of backing Shi'ite militias in southern Iraq.

Tehran says its nuclear program is limited to peaceful power generation and denies backing the militias.

"There is no reason why we should interfere in Iraqi politics other than supporting peace and stability in Iraq," Araghchi said. He said he had demanded the release of six Iranians he said were "abducted" in Iraq by U.S. forces.

U.S. soldiers seized five men Tehran says are diplomats in a raid on an Iranian government office in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil on January 11, in the second such incident in a month.

CAREFULLY COORDINATED

In a speech to the conference, Khalilzad pointedly urged Iraq's neighbors to stop the flow of weapons, fighters and sectarian propaganda fuelling violence in Iraq.

He denied U.S.-led forces had anyone in detention who was a diplomat.

Washington, which has no diplomatic relations with Iran, has had contacts with Iranian officials in group settings, including as recently as September, but has resisted bilateral talks.

The Iranian delegation arrived in the conference hall and took their seats without making any direct contact with U.S. delegates shortly before the meeting officially opened.

After a public opening session, the delegates retired to a private conference room where Iraqi and U.S. officials sat at either end of a long table, with Araghchi next to the Iraqi.

The two envoys held news conferences in the same room within minutes of each other but their entrances were carefully coordinated using two separate doors to avoid meeting.

Araghchi said foreign forces were fuelling a cycle of bloodshed because their presence was used to justify violence and violence was used in turn to justify their presence.

"The presence of foreign forces cannot help the security in Iraq in long-term time," Araghchi said. "We need a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign forces."

Asked about U.S. charges that Iran was arming militant groups in Iraq, Araghchi hit out at the United States over what he called "intelligence failure."

[Rasputin]

Like a frustrated in-law trying to reconcile a feuding couple, Iraq is hoping for a thaw in U.S.-Iran relations when representatives of the countries meet in Baghdad today.

Just getting the two to sit at the same table is a breakthrough, considering how unlikely the possibility seemed weeks ago. But analysts warn against unreasonable expectations. At best, they say, this first date is a chance to chip away at some of the ice coating Washington-Tehran relations, which became even frostier after the U.S. accused Iran of sending bombs to Iraqi Shiites attacking U.S. troops.

"That's useful in and of itself," said Jonathan Alterman of the Center for Strategic Studies in Washington. "Diplomacy is about processes, not successes. You get successes through processes."

This process began in December, when the Iraqi government decided to invite regional foreign ministers to Baghdad for a security conference. It ballooned into a global gathering fraught with diplomatic baggage as Iraqi officials, not wanting to leave crucial players out of the loop, expanded the invitation list. In addition to Iraq's neighbors and the United States, representatives of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and the Arab League also are attending.

The meeting is sure to highlight the tangled loyalties, resentments and suspicions in the region's nations, which fear the spread of Iraq's sectarian and ethnic strife as well as the continued flow of refugees.

The United States has sent David Satterfield, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's special advisor on Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, is leading his country's delegation.

Both countries remained coy about whether they would hold private talks. Neither has said they would seek them out, or that they would reject them.

Iraq's deputy foreign minister, Labeed Abbawi, hinted that his country was hoping for movement in that direction. Although Iraq wants the conference to focus on its security, "maybe it will open up a constructive dialogue on other regional issues," Abbawi said.

Talks with Iran and Syria were a key recommendation of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group in December. President Bush initially rejected the idea, and the White House insisted that attendance at this meeting did not constitute a shift in policy.

During a visit to Brazil on Friday, Bush said U.S. participation was aimed purely at helping Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's government.

"We'll see how it goes, but I'm happy to have supported the prime minister's request that this meeting take place," he said.

Still, U.S. participation is seen by some as a major adjustment in Bush administration strategy.

"This meeting is incredibly important from a psychological point of view," said Joost Hiltermann, a Middle East expert with the International Crisis Group in Amman, Jordan. Not only does it represent a sea change in U.S. policy, he said, it is bringing together neighbors who despite their differences want to see some good come to Iraq. "This is a very important basis for future talks."

The U.S.-Iranian issue is just one of many dogging Maliki, who needs the help of his neighbors — mostly Sunni Arab states critical of his Shiite-led government — to rebuild Iraq.

They include Syria, an Iranian ally. The United States accuses it of fueling the violence in Iraq by allowing anti-U.S. insurgents to cross its border, and also of meddling in Lebanon's affairs.

"Our message to the Syrians and Iranians won't change" at the meeting, Bush said.

Other neighbors include Jordan and Saudi Arabia, Sunni-majority states that joined other Arab League nations Sunday in accusing Maliki of sidelining Iraqi's Sunni Arab minority.

The league said it planned to use the conference to call for constitutional reforms to give non-Shiites more power, sparking angry responses from Iraq's government and leading Shiite clerics.

Abdelaziz Hakim, considered Iraq's most powerful Shiite political leader, alluded to the Arab League statement Friday in a speech to about 3 million Shiite pilgrims gathered for a religious festival in the city of Karbala. Hakim said the criticisms of the Iraqi government ignored the country's accomplishments since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led regime, and he told other nations not to try to push Iraq around.

"We warn about the dangers of imposing special regional or international goals" opposed to what Iraq wants, Hakim said, a statement that added to concerns that sniping before the meeting could get things off to a rocky start.

[Rasputin]

رييس*جمهور آمريكا با طرح اتهامات قبلى خود نسبت به ايران و سوريه، از اين دو كشور خواست اظهارات مثبت خود را با انجام اقدام عينى دنبال كند.

به گزارش خبرگزارى فرانسه پس از كنفرانس بين*المللى عراق، جرج بوش با درخواست از ايران و سوريه براى توقف انتقال تسليحات و مبارزان خارجى به عراق گفت: اگر آنها واقعا مايلند به باثبات كردن عراق كمكى كنند، اقداماتى نظير ارسال تسليحات و ... به عراق بايد متوقف شود.

بوش در ديدار از كلمبيا به خبرنگاران گفت: راههاى مختلفى براى ارزيابى جديت اظهارات اين دو كشور وجود دارد.

وى با بيان اين كه ما از اظهارات آنها استقبال مي*كنيم، افزود: گفته*هاى دمشق و تهران خوب است و اكنون آنها مي*توانند برمبناى اين اظهارات اقدام كنند.

بوش تاكيد كرد: من آدمى هستم كه مايلم افراد چيزى بگويند و آن را انجام دهند، سپس ما واكنش نشان مي*دهيم.

وى گفت: كنفرانس امنيتى عراق تعهداتى براى كمك به عراق ايجاد كرد كه اين امر بسيار مثبت است، در نتيجه مقامات عراقى بهتر قادرند اختلافات فرقه*اى را حل و فصل كنند.
جرج بوش افزود: اين دموكراسى جوان كشورهاى همسايه و كشورهاى سراسر جهان را گردهم آورد تا به روشى آنها مذاكره كنند كه سازنده و مثبت باشد. به اعتقاد من اين كنفرانس به فرقه*هاى متفاوت در عراق اعتماد به نفس لازم براى انجام كارهاى دشوار به منظور آشتى و صلح را داد و به دولت اين كشور نيز اطمينان لازم براى اتخاذ تصميماتى را داد تا آشتى و صلح تحقق يابد، بنابراين اين نتيجه مثبت است.

وى گفت: اين جريانى كه از كنفرانس به وجود آمده است، مي*تواند شرايط را براى نشست آتى در سطح وزراى خارجه فراهم كند.

[Rasputin]

Iraq Intensifies Efforts to Expel Iranian Group

For three years, thousands of members of a militant group dedicated to overthrowing Iran's theocracy have lived in a sprawling compound north of Baghdad under the protection of the U.S. military.

American soldiers chauffeur top leaders of the group, known as the Mujaheddin-e Khalq, or MEK, to and from their compound, where they have hosted dozens of visitors in an energetic campaign to persuade the State Department to stop designating the group as a terrorist organization.

Now the Iraqi government is intensifying its efforts to evict the 3,800 or so members of the group who live in Iraq, although U.S. officials say they are in no hurry to change their policy toward the MEK, which has been a prime source of information about Iran's nuclear program.

The Iraqi government announced this week that roughly 100 members would face prosecution for human rights violations, a move MEK officials contend comes at the request of the Iranian government.

"We have documents, witnesses," Jaafar al-Moussawi, a top Iraqi prosecutor, said Monday, alleging that the MEK aided President Saddam Hussein's campaign to crush Shiite and Kurdish opposition movements at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Moussawi said the criminal complaint would implicate MEK members in "killing, torture, [wrongful] imprisonment and displacement."

The group denied involvement in Hussein's reprisals.

"These allegations are preposterous and lies made by the Iranian mullahs and repeated by their agents," it said in a statement issued this week.

The case highlights the occasional discord between the U.S. and Iraqi governments on matters related to Iran. While the U.S. government has accused Iran of supplying Iraqi Shiite militias with sophisticated weapons that it says have been used to kill American troops, Iraq's Shiite-led government has expanded commercial and diplomatic ties with its majority-Shiite neighbor.

"This organization has always destabilized the security situation" in Iraq, said Mariam Rayis, a top foreign affairs adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, adding that the MEK's continued presence "could lead to deteriorating the relationship with neighboring countries."

MEK leaders dispute the prosecutor's allegations. They contend that Iran has infiltrated Iraq's political leadership while also supporting militant groups in an effort to keep the United States in a quagmire in Iraq. They also say the Iranian government wants to forestall a U.S. attack on Iran.

"The Iranian regime wants very much to prevent the winds of change," Behzad Saffari, a spokesman for the group, said in a recent interview at a Baghdad hotel. "Instead of fighting the Americans in Iran, [the Iranian government] is fighting them in Iraq. If we have to leave Iraq, it means the Americans are defeated. It means Iran has prevailed."

Maliki told officials from neighboring countries during a meeting in Baghdad on Saturday that Iraq should not become a battleground where other nations attempt to settle their disputes.

[Rasputin]

جنگ عراق درحالى وارد پنجمين سال خود شد كه رئيس جمهور آمريكا خواستار شكيبايى مردم و اجازه دادن به اجراى طرح هاى خود شد. اما رهبران جديد دموكرات كنگره هشدار مى دهند جايى براى صبر باقى نمانده است.
به گزارش خبرگزارى آسوشيتدپرس، "جورج بوش" دوشنبه شب به مناسبت چهارمين سالگرد اشغال عراق طى نطقى تلويزيونى گفت راهبرد جديد استقرار نيروهاى تازه نفس آمريكايى در بغداد براى تاثيرگذارى به زمان نياز دارد و مردم آمريكا بايد شكيبايى به خرج دهند.
وى با بيان اين كه اولويت برقرارى امنيت در بغداد است، در عين حال تاكيد كرد كه بازگرداندن زندگى عادى به ساير نقاط عراق نيز ضرورى است.
اما سخنان بوش بلافاصله با واكنش "نانسى پلوسى"، رئيس دموكرات كنگره آمريكا مواجه شد كه گفت:,مردم آمريكا اعتماد خود را به طرح بوش براى جنگى بدون پايان در عراق از دست داده اند. اين رويكرد شكست خورده و رأى دهندگان آمريكايى آن را رد كردند و كنگره نيز رد خواهد كرد.,
"جيمز كليبورن"، سناتور دموكرات نيز گفت كه نمايندگان دموكرات كنگره قصد دارند جدولى زمانى براى خروج مرحله بندى شده نيروها از عراق تنظيم كنند. وى خبر داد كه كنگره هفته جارى درباره لايحه اى كه دولت بوش را ملزم به خروج نيروها از عراق از ماه اوت سال آينده ميلادى خواهد كرد، رأى گيرى مى كند. در اين لايحه بودجه سال آينده جنگ هاى عراق و افغانستان نيز پيش بينى شده است.
اظهارات جورج بوش در پى اعلام نتايج جديدترين نظرسنجى از مردم عراق بيان مى شود كه حاكى از بدبينى فزاينده عراقى ها به نيروهاى آمريكايى است. در اين نظرسنجى كه مشتركاً توسط شبكه هاى بي*بي*سى انگليس، اي*بي*سى نيوز آمريكا و اي*آردى آلمان انجام شده، 82 درصد مردم عراق گفتند كه به نيروهاى خارجى بى اعتماد هستند و 86 درصد نگرانند يكى از اعضاى خانواده شان در خشونت ها كشته شود.
از ابتداى جنگ عراق تابحال 3 هزار و 200 نظامى آمريكايى در اين كشور كشته شده اند.
از سوى ديگر ژنرال "ديويد پترائوس"، فرمانده نيروهاى آمريكايى در عراق گفته است كه بحران جارى در اين كشور راه حل نظامى ندارد و اقدامات سياسى و اقتصادى در كنار عمليات نظامى براى برقرارى امنيت و بازگرداندن ثبات به جامعه عراق ضرورى است.
سناتور دموكرات "هريد ريد" نيز مى گويد جنگ عراق فقط از راه سياسى و با وادار كردن گروه هاى سياسى مختلف به حل اختلافاتشان به پايان مى رسد.

[Rasputin]

"ديك چنى" معاون رييس جمهورى آمريكا گفت: طرح عقب نشينى آمريكا از عراق ابدا در دستور كار قرار ندارد و مصوبه كنگره براى تعيين جدول زمانى خروج نيروها از آمريكا چيزى را تغيير نمي*دهد.

به گزارش روز يكشنبه شبكه خبرى بي*بي*سي، چنى شنبه شب در ديدار با اعضاى يهودى حزب جمهوريخواه در فلوريدا گفت: عقب*نشينى ناگهانى نيروهاى ائتلاف از عراق، تمام تلاشها براى مبارزه جهانى با تروريسم* را خنثى و بي*اثر مي*سازد و آشوبها و خطرات را در اين كشور تشديد خواهد كرد.

وى گفت: اين عقب*نشينى سبب اعتبار راهبرد القاعده در عراق خواهد شد چرا كه گروههاى جهادى در عراق در جستجوى ماموريتهاى جديد در عراق ، افغانستان و يا هر نقطه ديگر خاورميانه هستند.

مجلس نمايندگان آمريكا جمعه گذشته با تصويب مصوبه*اى نيروهاى آمريكايى را ملزم به خروج از عراق كرد و تاريخ اوت ۲۰۰۸را آخرين زمان خروج اين نيروها تعيين كرد.

"جورج بوش" رييس جمهورى آمريكا نيز ديروز (شنبه) اعلام كردكه مصوبه مجلس نمايندگان را وتو مي*كند.

[Rasputin]

رابرت گيتس وزير دفاع آمريكا گفته است كه واشنگتن آماده گفت و گوهاى بيشتر با ايران درباره عراق است.

شبكه خبرى بلومبرگ روز سه شنبه گزارش داد: گيتس اشاره كرده با اين كه نگران ادامه اهداف غيرقابل قبول ايران در بحث انرژى هسته*اى است، آمريكا مايل است تا گفت وگوهاى گسترده*ترى را با ايران بر سر ثبات عراق داشته باشد.

گيتس گفت و گوهاى دهم مارس را كه در بغداد انجام شد،به عنوان شروعى مثبت توصيف كرد.

وى كه در مركز روابط آمريكا و تركيه در واشنگتن سخنرانى مي*كرد تصريح كرد كه آمريكا براى تبادل نظر در سطح بالاتر آمادگى دارد تا خشونت در عراق كاهش و آشتى سياسى ايجاد شود.

وزير دفاع آمريكا ادامه داد كه ايران در امور عراق سرمايه*گذارى كرده و بايد در تلاش منطقه*اى جهت جلوگيرى از شكست عراق سهيم باشد.

او از تركيه خواست تا مخالفت با آمريكا بر سر حمله به عراق را كه چهار سال قبل انجام شد كنار بگذارد و به آينده همسايه*اش فكر كند.

بلومبرگ گزارش داد:سخنان گيتس در رابطه با دخالت سياسى همسايگان عراق در حالى انجام مي*شود كه تلاش نيروى نظامي*آمريكا براى بيرون راندن شورشيان از بغداد افزايش يافته است.

وزير دفاع آمريكا مدعى شد" در حالى كه كمك ايرانيان ارزش دارد هدف ايران براى خاورميانه بزرگ موجب نگرانى است. از زمان انقلاب اسلامى جستجو واشنگتن براى يافتن ايرانيان ميانه*رو اغلب بي*نتيجه بوده است."

[Rasputin]

Iraqi figures estimate civilian deaths in violence across the country rose by 13% last month, despite the security crackdown in Baghdad.
Data compiled by several ministries put civilian deaths in March at 1,861 - compared with 1,645 for February.

A BBC correspondent in Baghdad says insurgents seem to have shifted their focus outside the capital to avoid recently introduced security measures.

US diplomats say violence in the Iraqi capital has fallen by 25%.

In renewed violence on Sunday, two truck bombs exploded in the northern city of Mosul, killing two people and injuring 17 others, Reuters news agency reported.

And the US military said six of its personnel were killed in roadside bombings south-west of Baghdad over the weekend.

Revenge attacks

The six-week old security push seeks to significantly reduce sectarian violence in Baghdad, which is seen as crucial to stabilising Iraq as a whole.

Although much of the violence in March was outside Baghdad, the capital still saw big attacks.

The northern town of Talafar was a focus of violence in the past week.

A suicide truck bombing which left at least 83 people dead was followed by apparent revenge attacks against Sunnis that killed at least 45 people.

US military commanders had expected a switch in tactics, and the latest figures released by the interior, defence and health ministries appear to bear that out, says the BBC's Jonathan Charles in Baghdad.

According to the data released, 165 Iraqi police and 44 Iraqi soldiers were also killed in March.

More than 80 US service personnel lost their lives over the same period.

Health ministry estimates for civilian deaths in violence in January and December were both more than 1,900.

[Rasputin]

An Iranian diplomat kidnapped in Iraq in February has been freed.
Jalal Sharafi, the second secretary at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, apparently walked back into the embassy off the streets of the Iraqi capital.

No-one has admitted seizing him, but Iraqi officials had been working for his release - and that of five Iranian officials seized by the US in January.

Separately, Iraqi officials say they are urging Iran to free 15 UK Navy personnel they seized on 23 March.

"We are intensively seeking the release of the five Iranians," an unnamed Iraqi official said.

"This will be a factor that will help in the release of the British sailors and marines."

While Iraqi diplomats are hopeful that their release would have a positive impact on the case of the British naval personnel, they are not making a direct connection between the two issues, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad.

Dim hopes

Mr Sharafi was abducted from his car in February in the city's central Karrada district by men wearing Iraqi army uniforms.

He was released on Monday and returned to Iran on Tuesday.

Iranian officials had previously blamed the US for the abduction, saying Jalal Sharafi was taken by an Iraqi army unit that worked closely with the Americans.


Computers were seized from the Iranian liaison office in Irbil

US officials denied any involvement in the kidnapping and said they did not know about the diplomat's release.

But they have been refusing to release the five Iranian officials they caught during a raid on an Iranian liaison office in the northern city of Irbil on 11 January.

The US accuses them of aiding the insurgency and rejects Iranian and Iraqi government statements that the men were engaged in consular work.

The Iraqi foreign ministry has been pressing for their release from the beginning - and had hoped that they would be freed by the Persian New Year on 21 March, says our Baghdad correspondent.

This did not happen and there are no particular signs of an imminent release, our correspondent says.

[Rasputin]

Iran may miss Iraq meet due to detainees: report

may not attend a multilateral conference on Iraq next month that includes the United States if U.S. forces do not release five Iranians it is holding there, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.


In January, U.S. forces detained five Iranians linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards by Washington, which said they were backing Iraqi militants. Iran denies the charges, says they are diplomats and has demanded their release.

"We have reminded Iraqi officials that as long as the Iranian diplomats are not freed, Iran's participation at any conference about Iraq with the presence of America will face a serious problem and obstacle," Abbas Araghchi, a senior Foreign Ministry official, told Iran's hardline Kayhan daily.

Araghchi represented Iran at a meeting of the United States, other world powers and Iraq's neighbors in Baghdad in March. During that meeting, he spoke with the U.S. representative, Zalmay Khalilzad, Washington's ambassador to Baghdad.

The meeting expected next month will be at ministerial level. U.S. officials have said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was open to talks with Iran over its role in Iraq but Tehran has said it has no plans for such a meeting.

Iran said this month it had warned Iraq in a letter that its failure to secure the release of the five detained Iranians could impair Tehran's cooperation with Baghdad. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said he had not received any letter.

The U.S. military has said it is considering an Iranian request to visit the men. An International Committee of the Red Cross team has visited the detained Iranians. Araghchi said the Red Cross confirmed they were in "good health."