Iraqi President Rejects Baker's Plan for Iraq

The Iraq Study Group chairmen Lee Hamilton and James Baker have said in comments to the Congress, that their plan may be too late. Indeed, we see the signs that is indeed the case. Talabani, one of the more reliable leaders in Iraq rejects the plan as a violation of sovereignty. It would appear that even President Talabani recognizes that political considerations make a grand realignment of elements of US influence would not be accepted politically. Talabani is closing ranks with his Shia collegues and accepts the reality of civil war.
Talabani is making Iraqi foreign policy which includes engagement with Syria and Iran. Now here is a man who plays his cards well.
Now if Bush could accept that reality, maybe we could get out of harms way.
washingtonpost.com

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Sunday strongly rejected a bipartisan U.S. panel's report on U.S. war strategy in Iraq, calling some of its recommendations "dangerous" and a threat to his country's sovereignty.
"The report does not respect the will of the Iraqis in dealing with their problems," he said in a statement released by his office.


Talabani was particularly critical of recommendations to embed thousands of U.S. troops with Iraqi security forces to train and advise them, to centralize control of the country's oil revenue and to allow former loyalists of deposed president Saddam Hussein back into their old government jobs.


"I think that the report is unjust and unfair and contains some dangerous articles which reduce the sovereignty of Iraq and its constitution," he said, according to a Washington Post translation of his comments.


The Iraq Study Group said most U.S. troops should be withdrawn by early 2008. Talabani demanded that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki be given full control over Iraqi security forces before then.


"The report does not respect the will of the Iraqi people in controlling its army and its capability to arm and train the army," he said.


[...]Talabani embraced the group's recommendation that the United States and Iraq engage in talks with Iraq's neighbors, especially Iran and Syria. The Bush administration has been reluctant to do so.


Iraq has already opened the lines of communication with both countries. Last month, Talabani met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran. On Sunday, he said he planned to make an official visit to Syria but did not specify when.


As Talabani criticized the report, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, praised it for emphasizing the need to focus more attention on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reexamine the Iraqi constitution, which he said has divided the sects vying for power, according to wire reports of comments he made in Riyadh.

al-Faisal appears to be reinforcing his message to Cheney last week. The primary political problem in the Middle East, even Iraq, resides in Israel.