Word: samarra
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...your efforts to shepherd Iraqi politicians towards a national-unity government. There's been a lot of dissonance recently; what we're hearing from the Iraqi politicians, in the public sphere, doesn't allow for much confidence that such a government is possible. If anything, since the events of Samarra, they seem to be farther away. I want to get a sense of what you feel, what has changed since Samarra and how that has affected your efforts...
...threat to their influence. "They thought I was trying to give [the ministry] to the Sunnis," Khalilzad says. And justified or not, some Shi'ites say Khalilzad's slapdown contributed to the rage that erupted after the Feb. 22 terrorist bombing of the sacred Shi'ite shrine in Samarra, which left hundreds dead. "I see what happened in the immediate aftermath of Samarra as a strategic warning to Iraqi society and the Iraqi leadership," Khalilzad says. "If they didn't have a feeling that there was a concerted effort at provoking civil war by the enemies of Iraq, they cannot...
...fundamental requisite for U.S. plans to draw down its 130,000-strong force in Iraq. For many political observers, hopes of a national-unity government have been dashed by the violence of the past two weeks, sparked by the destruction of a major Shi'ite shrine in Samarra. But Khalilzad told TIME he remains optimistic: "I believe that if we get - when we get - the national-unity government, when we have ministries that are run by competent ministers, and as we get into the next phase of our Sunni outreach ... I see a set of circumstances, frankly, that would allow...
...Khalilzad, posted to Baghdad last June after an ambassadorial stint in Afghanistan, concedes that the post-Samarra violence has complicated the Iraqi political landscape. But he dismissed predictions that the violence would continue. "I'm not projecting that we'll have more of the same," he said...
...interim government. But Kurdish, Sunni and secular parties have in recent days mounted a strong challenge, demanding that Jaafari's nomination be withdrawn. They blame Jaafari for the interim government's many failings, including its failure to act quickly and decisively to prevent the sectarian conflagration that followed the Samarra blast...