The Americans can “leave Iraq with dignity” by quickly handing over security to Iraqis with the necessary experience, a leading Shia Muslim official has told the FT.
Mohsen Hakim, 33, son and political advisor of Abd al-Aziz Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri), reflected frustration among Iraq’s leading Shia party at the speed and manner of the US establishing new security forces.
US president George W. Bush said Friday that it’s not yet clear when Iraqi forces will be able to take control of their country’s security, a key step in reducing US troop numbers. Making that determination, he said, depends on an assessment of the new government in Baghdad, which on Thursday installed new defence and interior ministers.
But speaking in Tehran, Mr Hakim said the Americans had made mistakes by bringing back ex-Baathists to security posts instead of appointing “those who fought Saddam for 20 years”.
Mr Hakim singled out a hostile US attitude to Badr, a military group allied to Sciri that has taken up a political role. The five mainly Shia provinces with a governor from Badr were the most stable in Iraq, he said.
For Sciri, America’s “many mistakes over three years”, he said, went back to their 2003 decision not to limit their military role to bombarding the forces of Saddam Hussein while Kurdish and Shia forces “freed Iraq”.
At the time, Donald Rumsfeld, US secretary of defence, threatened to treat Badr as “combatants” if they attacked Iraqi forces, and Kurdish officials have also reported the US refused their offer to deploy peshmerga forces in Baghdad and other areas.
“The Americans didn’t listen to us then, and they haven’t listened since,” said Mr Hakim, who played down reports of sectarian violence involving Shia militias, including Badr. “Some young Shia have taken revenge for [the] killing of their fathers or brothers, but this is not organised by parties,” he said.
The situation in Basra, the southern port city, was exaggerated by the Arab media, Mr Hakim argued. “Because Basra is 85 percent Shia, the Sunnis ruling the Arab world want to show it’s not just Sunnis who are responsible for the catastrophes, that the Shia also have terrorists.”
He argued things were far worse in Mosul, the mainly Sunni city in the north. “There have been massacres of the Shia minority in Mosul, which is roughly as big as the Sunni minority in Basra. Sunni mosques in Basra are open, but Shia mosques in Basra are closed – either because they were destroyed or because people are terrified.”
But Basra, he said, had deteriorated in the year since Mohammad Waelli, from the Fadillah party, who replaced Hassan Rashed, of Badr, as governor. “This is because Mr Waelli lacks experience,” said Mr Hakim. “A simple Google search shows how violence has increased.”
Mr Hakim said Shia were a clear majority of people displaced in sectarian violence after February’s bombing of the Shia Askariya shrine, a claim disputed by some Sunnis.
He stressed Iraq required national consensus between ethnic and religious groups, and defended the time taken by Nuri al-Maliki, the prime minister, to nominate defence and interior ministers.
“A national unity government is the best way to stop civil war,” he said. “The ones opposing it are al-Qaeda and Baathists. The Kurds, Shia and most of our Sunni brothers don’t want civil war.”
Mr Hakim also expressed optimism over prospective talks between Iran and the US, over Iraq and wider issues including Iran’s atomic programme.
He said he had discussed this in Iraq with Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador, in Farsi, in which both are fluent.
“Such talks can benefit the whole region. As the Farsi saying has it, every utterance leads to another”.
