Sunday, August 26, 2007

Kurdish MP: Iraqis Frustrated With U.S. Policy In Iraq



Baghdad, Aug 25, (VOI)- A leading figure from The Kurdistan Alliance parliamentary bloc said on Saturday the U.S. is not the only party that felt disappointed over Iraq for the Iraqis are also frustrated with Washington's policy in the country, describing the National Intelligence Estimate as "a prologue to Crocker- Petraeus report" expected in September.

"If the U.S. administration was disappointed over the Iraqi leaders, Iraqis had been frustrated with the U.S. policy (in Iraq) over the last four years," Mahmoud Othman told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) over the phone.

The Kurdish politician who criticized the content of the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), a declassified summary of it released on Thursday, said "the NIE reported the Kurdish leaders as not compromising on essential issues but the truth is that the Kurdish leaders are playing key roles in solving most crises in the country."

Othman who is affiliated to the second largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament also added "it is true that the Kurds are interested in defending their autonomy within Kurdistan region, but they are also interested in the Iraqi issues and Presidents Jalal al-Talabani and Massoud Barzani play an important role in finding solutions to the lingering issues to push the political process forward."

On Thursday, a declassified file of NIE described the Kurdish leaders as protecting the autonomy of the Kurdish region and "reluctant to compromise on key issues."

"NIE is but a prologue to the Crocker and Petraeus report expected to be released in September," Othman told VOI.

The Kurdish politician expected for the report now prepared by the U.S. envy to Baghdad Ryan Crocker and the Top Military Commander in Iraq David Petraeus to duplicate the NIE's statements noting "the U.S. administration wants to inform the U.S. citizen that it had done all it could but it was the Iraqi government that failed to make progress."

"The NIE, statements by U.S. President George W. Bush and some senators are but an introduction to Crocer-Petraeus report which is expected to be announced on September 11," the Kurdish parliamentarian added.

Othman who admitted some failure on the part of the Iraqi government called upon the U.S. and Iraqi sides to share responsibility towards the mistakes committed noting "we can not say that the Iraqi government is a success for we know it suffers from difficulties but the responsibility behind these problems should equally shared by the U.S. and Iraqi sides."


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