BAGHDAD, 25 October 2006 — The United States ambassador to Iraq assured US voters yesterday that victory can still be achieved in this war-torn country within a year or 18 months as long as Iraqi leaders live up to their promises.
At a news conference that was briefly plunged into darkness by one of Baghdad’s daily power cuts, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad described the battle to save Iraq from extremists as “the defining challenge of our era.”
And, in a direct appeal to the American people two weeks before key midterm congressional elections, he said it was not too late for an evolving US strategy to achieve its stated goals.
“Our goal is to enable Iraqis to develop a multiethnic, multisectarian representative democracy after decades of tyranny,” he said, rebuffing talk in Washington of settling for lesser aims in exchange for a quick exit.
“The recent sectarian bloodshed in Iraq causes many to question whether the United States can succeed,” he conceded, standing beside the top US commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey. “Our goal has not changed.”
“Iraqi leaders must step up to achieve key political and security milestones on which they have agreed. As they take these steps, which can produce success and bring about Iraqi security self-reliance, we must support them.”
In order to bring an end to the violence, Khalilzad argued, Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and his fellow Iraqi leaders must quickly resolve their key disputes while building stronger armed forces.
They must agree to share oil revenues, amend the constitution to ensure the rights of all groups, disarm militias, set a date for provincial elections and review the panel charged with sacking officials from Saddam Hussein’s era. Khalilzad said Maliki and other leaders had agreed to a “timetable” but did not speak of any deadline having been imposed.
“We believe that in the course of the next 12 months, assuming that Iraqi leaders fulfill the commitments they have made, and I don’t have any reason to doubt that, there should be a national compact in place by that time,” he said.
