Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Baghdad Monday to meet with Prime Minister Nour al-Maliki, with the intent of urging the Iraqi leader to accelerate the formation of an inclusive, unified government amid reports of further Sunni extremist gains and unrest across the country.
The visit comes following reports of what Reuters described as tense meetings held last week between Maliki and U.S. diplomats:
Meetings between Maliki and U.S. diplomats last week were heated, according to a Western diplomat briefed on the sessions by a participant. U.S. officials told Maliki he would need to step aside if he no longer had parliamentary support for a third term, the diplomat said.
“I assume he got the message, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he tries to get around it,” the western diplomat said, adding a phone call with Vice President Joseph Biden was initially cancelled due to the friction generated by the meetings. The phone call was finally held last Wednesday.
The Associated Press noted that the Kerry-Maliki meeting was “not expected to be friendly” as “Iraqi officials have long listened to — but ultimately ignored — U.S. advice.”
The Iran-backed Maliki has been widely criticized for having prioritized Shiite expansionism over building pluralistic institutions that would have incorporated minority Sunnis. The meeting comes as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) continued its advance through Iraq over the weekend, taking control of strategic border crossings with Jordan and Syria.
Maliki has been broadly blamed for alienating Iraqi Sunnis and creating an environment favorable to the current ISIS-led insurgency. The Boston Globe’s editorial staff on Sunday argued that Maliki’s close ties to Iran have been instrumental in fostering the sectarian divide plaguing Iraq:
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, spent years in exile in Iran. Sunnis widely consider him to be a puppet of Iran. That may be a stretch. But Iran did help broker the deal in 2010 that left Maliki in power, despite the fact that Ayad Allawi — a secular Shiite supported by many Sunnis — won more seats in parliament. Allawi might have ushered in a more inclusive government that would have pulled back from the sectarianism plaguing Iraq today. But Iran wasn’t interested. Iran also pressured Iraq’s government to refuse to allow a residual US troop presence in Iraq. It is foolhardy to think that Iran would cooperate with the United States military in good faith.
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