IRAQ: Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki yesterday dismissed Washington's claim that Iraqi politicians had agreed a timetable to settle key differences and lashed out at a US-supervised raid on a militia target in the Shia slum of Sadr City.
His statements were a challenge to US officials who say that progress depends on Iraqi politicians swiftly taking decisions on issues that have divided Sunni and Shia and fed sectarian tensions.
The comments suggest that Mr Maliki either believes that Washington has no option but to continue backing his government or feels that he cannot afford to alienate other members of his Shia-led coalition by authorising operations against Shia militias, as the Americans would like him to do.
Mr Maliki spoke at a press conference following a US-Iraqi raid on the massive Shia slum of Sadr City, the support base of the radical Shia Mahdi army militia, in which residents said at least four people were killed by air strikes and gunfire.
According to a US military statement, Iraqi special forces backed by US advisers conducted a raid "authorised by the government of Iraq . . . to capture a top illegal armed group commander directing widespread death-squad activity".
The prime minister however, who in an interview last week said he would block large-scale US operations in the crowded district, denied that he had been informed of the raid.
"We will ask for clarification about what has happened in Sadr City. We will review this issue with the multinational forces so that it will not be repeated," he said.
Mr Maliki also disavowed a statement on Tuesday by US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad that Iraqi politicians had set a timetable to reach agreement on divisive issues.
"I affirm that this government represents the will of the people and no one has the right to impose a timetable on it," Mr Maliki said.
He said that talk of timelines was probably driven by the November 7th US elections and that "we are not much concerned by it".
Mr Khalilzad had said that Iraqi leaders would take decisions on a number of issues, including how to share Iraq's oil revenues, amending the constitution, changing the committee charged with purging former members of the ruling Baath party into an "accountability and reconciliation programme", implementing a plan to address militias and death squads and on other issues.
Most of these are of particular importance to Sunni leaders, who want to change the constitution to prevent their oil-poor heartland in central Iraq from being denied oil revenue. Mr Maliki has come under US pressure to reach out to the Sunni community.
He reiterated his government's pledge to crack down on militias deemed responsible for sectarian killings. "There is no place for militias alongside the state. The existence of militias harms the state and I've given instructions to our armed forces that they be firm with them," he said.