Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki issues statement: "Please do not kill me"
BAGHDAD, Iraq After a hastily arranged video conference with the U.S. president Saturday, a close aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the Iraqi leader was intentionally playing on U.S. voter displeasure with George Bush's conduct of the war to strengthen his own hand with Washington.Furthermore, Hassan al-Suneid said, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sought the video conference because newly arisen issues needed airing at a higher level than Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. Al-Suneid is a lawmaker from al-Maliki's Dawa Party and a member of his inner circle.
"The U.S. Ambassador is not (L. Paul) Bremer (the former U.S. administrator in Iraq). He does not have a free rein to do what he likes. Khalilzad must not behave like Bremer but rather like an ambassador," al-Suneid, quoted the prime minister as saying.
The remarks were the fourth time in a week that al-Maliki has challenged the Bush administration's handling of the war. Each riposte flowed from an announcement by Khalilzad on Tuesday that al-Maliki had agreed to an U.S. plan to set timelines for progress.
Al-Maliki's anger over the issue grew through the week until on Friday, al-Suneid said, the prime minister told Khalilzad: "I am a friend of the United States, but I am not America's man in Iraq."
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- October 29, 2006
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