Rice praises Iraqis for political progress
She cited a law letting Baathists return to their jobs, and called for further unity.
BAGHDAD - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice used an unscheduled visit to Baghdad yesterday to laud Iraqi leaders for making progress on a set of political recommendations established by the United States to help the country bridge its sectarian divide. But she also stressed that more progress was necessary.
In a 20-minute news conference inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, Rice said the recent passage of a law intended to make it easier for former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party to return to civil-service jobs would encourage Iraqi unity despite its potential shortcomings.
"This law, the 'accountability and justice law,' is clearly a step forward for national reconciliation," she said. "It is clearly a step forward for healing the wounds of the past."
The law seeks to address the Bush administration's decision in 2003 to force most Baath Party members, who were largely Sunni Muslims, out of government jobs. The decree helped give rise to the Sunni insurgency.
Some Shiite and Sunni lawmakers said the new law would allow thousands of former low-level Baath officials to return to their government jobs. But critics, mostly hard-line Sunni lawmakers, say the measure could actually force out some former Baathists still working in the government.
"The law will be more than some wanted; it will be less than some wanted," Rice said. "That's the nature of democratic compromise."
Echoing a statement made a day earlier by senior U.S. military officials in the country, Rice said passage of the law would "have to be followed up by implementation that is in the same spirit of national reconciliation. That is the work that is ahead."
Rice, joined at her news conference by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, also met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. She urged the Shiite leader to continue looking for ways to reconcile with rival Sunni blocs and congratulated him for the "quite remarkable" progress so far.
But she pressed for more, telling Maliki not to lose a "golden opportunity" during President Bush's final year in office to bring Sunni Arabs into a unity government, the Associated Press reported, quoting three Iraqi officials with knowledge of the talks.
Her visit to Iraq was a detour from Bush's weeklong swing through the Middle East, which she has been accompanying.
At a news conference later in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Rice and the foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said Iraq was a topic in discussions between Bush and the Saudis, and Saud assured the Americans of his support for Iraq. The Saudis have been less than enthusiastic about the Shiite-led government and have yet to open an embassy or send an ambassador.
Saud said last night that an ambassador had been designated and that an embassy would open "in the next few months."
Rice's visit to Iraq came as Turkish warplanes bombed several villages in the northern part of the country, the latest in a series of recent aerial attacks on suspected Kurdish guerrilla sanctuaries in the area, Iraqi officials said. No injuries were reported from the bombing.
Also yesterday, a major blaze at a refinery near the southern oil-rich city of Basra prompted the facility to be shut down, officials said.
Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani suggested the blaze was caused by a military helicopter and said that an investigation into the incident had begun. Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, a U.S. military spokesman, said: "I can say that the fire was definitely not caused by a coalition overflight."
U.S. Probes Army Deaths
Three Army soldiers
who were gunned down during an intensive, three-hour firefight in the Salahuddin province north of Baghdad last week may have died from friendly fire, military officials said yesterday.
The 101st Airborne
Division soldiers were part of an Army company that was attacked by up to 15 insurgents Jan. 8, after discovering several large caches of explosives.
Military officials
said the incident was being investigated to determine whether the soldiers were killed by shots from the enemy or by U.S. forces, including members of their unit and backup aircraft.
At some point
during the fight, soldiers discovered that two members of their unit - Pfc. Ivan E. Merlo, 19, of San Marcos, Calif., and Pfc. Phillip J. Pannier, 20, of Washburn, Ill. - had been killed. Sgt. David J. Hart, 22, of Lake View Terrace, Calif., died later.
- Associated Press
