The establishment of a permanent Iraqi government will provide “the framework” for eliminating militia groups that have terrorized Iraqi citizens and also help curtail Kurdish terrorism that has soured U.S.-Turkish relations, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday.
Rice, who is traveling this week to Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, told reporters that the end of the four-month impasse over Iraqi’s political leaders will open a new phase in the reconstruction of Iraq, one in which the U.S. will increasingly step back. But the shift will not be dramatic, she said.
There will be continued violence, she said, and the progress will be political in nature, “which doesn’t come in great flashes, it doesn’t come in great outbursts of another election or purple fingers or any of that. This is now going to have to be steady progress toward building the infrastructure of governing and then governing.”
Bloody clashes between rival militias have emerged as an increasingly destabilizing influence in Iraq, with some analysts saying the militias have become an even larger problem than insurgents.
The elimination of militias is “an important element of establishing trust between the Iraqi government and Iraqi people as a whole,” Rice said.
“The best thing we can do is to make sure that our training helps them to create truly national military forces and … police forces because that then takes away any sense that one needs militias to provide security. That, I think, will be our principal role.”
