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News Analysis
By
Yasser Alaskary
October 13, 2003
- There
has been a significant change in policy in Washington
regarding Iraq:
- Bush
seems to have given up once more on the UN as he fails
to mention the UN in his weekly radio speech and gives
Powell
and the UK
a final chance to try and save the resolution on Iraq.
Instead, the US is looking to bypass
the UN by asking countries directly for
troops, as has been the case with Turkey. Currently
the Turks are at odds as to where they will be based
in Iraq, wanting to cover the entire north,
whereas the US is insisting Turkey take the Sunni-Arab
north-west, including patrolling the porous Syrian
border, thereby minimising any friction with the Kurds,
who are predominantly in the north-east.
- In
what appears to be the final settlement of the ongoing
wrangling between the Pentagon and State Department,
which has significantly delayed progress in Iraq,
the White House takes a direct role in running Iraqi
affairs by the appointment of Condoleezza
Rice to lead the newly formed Iraq Stabalisation
Group.
Bush
feels he can get enough support to go it alone without
the UN and maintain US commitments in Iraq, as the US
administration launches a PR
campaign to win public opinion on Iraq.
- A
suicide
bomb at the Baghdad Hotel, which houses several
Governing Council members, and an earlier assassination
attempt at a Muslim
cleric in the Ministry of Religious Affairs
demonstrates that now Iraqis are becoming the main targets.
The methods used make it more likely that these are Wahabi
fundamentalists from outside Iraq, believing these to
be acts of martydom, and not Saddam loyalists who are
secular. These groups are clearly aiming to impede Iraq's
progress and transition towards democracy.
- On
a positive note, progress has been made as:
- Iraq's
Communications Ministry awards three
wireless licenses to Arab consortia, all
of which include Iraqi firms. This demonstrates the
degree of autonomy the Iraqi Interim Authority has.
- A
key House of Representatives panel is set to reject
efforts to make part of the US $87 billion into
a loan, which Iraq would have had to pay
back in the future.
- Iraqi
police are set to begin to patrol
Tikrit, giving Iraqis greater responsibility
for security.
- A
project has begun to restore
the wetlands in southern Iraq, which were
drained by Saddam in one of the greatest humanitarian
and ecological disasters in recent history.
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