Departing envoy says Iraq must understand US impatience

Iraq is heading in the right direction, but its leaders must understand US voters are increasingly impatient with the conflict according to departing US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.

Mr Khalilzad, who is leaving his post after 21 months that had seen a massive increase in violence in Baghdad overall, declared that insurgent and militia attacks had decreased by 25% in the six weeks since the start of a US-Iraqi security plan on February 14.

“I know that we are an impatient people, and I constantly signal to the Iraqi leaders that our patience, or the patience of the American people, is running out,” said the Afghan-born Khalilzad, who has been nominated by President George Bush as American ambassador to the United Nations.

Mr Khalilzad’s cautiously optimistic assessment on security coincided with the eruption of sectarian violence in a string of mixed Sunni-Shiite towns south of the capital.

In Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, authorities slapped an indefinite curfew after two people were killed and two others wounded in sectarian clashes sparked by an attack by suspected Shiite militants on a Sunni mosque, police said.

Aides to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said Washington had signalled that he must make progress on a series of benchmark legislative and political measures by June 30 or face a withdrawal of American support for his government.

The United States has denied making the threat but Mr Khalilzad was clear today that Mr Maliki was under heavy US pressure to move rapidly on several issues, especially a law that would provide a fair distribution of Iraqi oil wealth among all ethnic and sectarian groups, a measure that is especially important to the White House.