Region | Jordan
Pullout of Al Sadr from cabinet 'could help reconciliation process'
The resignations of six Iraqi cabinet ministers loyal to a radical cleric could help the reconciliation process there, depending on who is appointed to replace them, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday.
- AP
- Published: 00:00 April 18, 2007
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Jordan's King Abdullah during his meeting with Gates at the Royal Palace in Amman.
Amman: The resignations of six Iraqi cabinet ministers loyal to a radical cleric could help the reconciliation process there, depending on who is appointed to replace them, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday.
Gates, who is travelling in the Middle East, also said he does not yet know whether the departure of the six officials tied to Moqtada Al Sadr will increase the violence by Al Sadr's Mehdi Army militia.
"I think the impact ... that these resignations have will depend, in some measure on who is selected to replace these ministers and their capabilities, and whether those vacancies are used in a way that can perhaps further advance the reconciliation process," said Gates.
"There is the opportunity to turn what might seem like a negative potentially into a positive development." Noting that the six ministers are remaining as members of the council of representatives and therefore not walking away from the process, Gates said it is still not clear what Al Sadr's motives are for the split.
"In the intelligence business we divided all the information that we wanted to know into two categories - secrets and mysteries," said Gates, a former director of the CIA. "I think that his motives right now, at least for me, are a mystery not a secret."
Gates said that broadening the representation in the cabinet of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki's could help advance the reconciliation process.
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Al Sadr has said the reason for the resignations is the lack of a timetable for a US troop withdrawal from Iraq - a move that Gates and the administration of US President George W. have opposed.
But Gates again said yesterday that the ongoing push for a timetable by the Democratically-controlled Congress has been helpful in showing the Iraqis that American patience is limited.
"I've been pretty clear that I think the enactment of specific deadlines would be a bad mistake. but I think the debate itself, and I think the strong feelings expressed in the Congress about the timetable ... probably has had a positive impact - at least I hope it has in terms of communicating to the Iraqis that this is not an open-ended commitment," he said.
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