BAGHDAD — While Washington waits attentively for the release today of a report calling for new approaches to the Iraq war, leaders in Baghdad have pressed ahead with their own initiatives, some of which differ sharply from Bush administration thinking.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki reaffirmed Tuesday his intention to work with Iran and Syria to stem support for Shiite Muslim militias and Sunni Arab insurgents, an idea likely to be part of today's recommendations from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.).
President Bush has been reluctant to approach either Iran or Syria for assistance.
Other Iraqi proposals dovetail with Bush administration priorities and the U.S. panel's expected recommendations. Maliki's Shiite-led government has pressed for the accelerated training of Iraqi armed forces to quicken the transfer of security responsibilities. And the prime minister has promised to put more effective leaders in his Cabinet, reconcile with Sunnis and dismantle militia death squads blamed for nightly killings.
Few Iraqi politicians have put much stock in the deliberations of the Iraq Study Group or other reviews taking place in Washington.
Most appear preoccupied with gaining the upper hand for a particular sect or ethnicity in the byzantine negotiations that will shape Maliki's promised Cabinet reshuffle. Others say they will reject any Washington proposals on principle.
"We are now under occupation; whatever the occupation produces is considered illegitimate," said Fatah Sheik, an ally of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr, whose followers have repeatedly fought U.S. forces and account for one of the two largest Shiite factions in parliament.
There is also scant evidence that Iraq's fractured government will set aside its internal differences long enough to implement any of its proposed initiatives.
Maliki's decision Tuesday to send envoys to Iraq's neighbors to pave the way for a regional conference has the potential to further polarize the debate.
While his government courts Iran and Syria, representatives of the disaffected Sunni minority that dominated Iraq under former leader Saddam Hussein have made overtures to Sunni governments in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt.
Kurdish leaders, for their part, worry that such moves will lead to more foreign interference by hostile neighbors. They prefer to look within Iraq for solutions.
