Iraqi minister predicts election to cut violence

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LONDON -- Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari predicted yesterday that national elections, scheduled for January next year, will result in a dramatic reduction in the violence that is plaguing his country.

The minister also said the elections must go ahead on schedule even if the insurgency makes areas in central and northern Iraq inaccessible to election officials.

"Our enemies will do their best to veto the operation," Mr. Zebari told The Washington Times in a telephone interview from New York, where he was attending the U.N. General Assembly. "But it will be the turning point. It will change the whole dynamic of the situation."

After the elections at the national, local and municipal levels, he said, the strategy would be to form "a government of national unity that would bring in the participation of many groups and trends." That in turn would encourage those outside the process to join in, he said.

"They will be left with a very stark choice," he said of the Shi'ite militants, Sunni extremists and former Ba'athists who have been backing the anti-government resistance. "No one will want to be left out."

Mr. Zebari acknowledged that insurgents may still control some parts of the so-called "Sunni triangle" at the time of the elections.

"Realistically, there will be some areas left out, but they can join the process later," he said.

Mr. Zebari was particularly concerned about the city of Fallujah, where he said foreign fighters were "holding the local population as hostages." He admitted that the violence in Fallujah had "not been handled correctly," and that not all fighters in the city were foreign.

"There are some die-hard Ba'athists and former security services men, ex-torturers and ex-jailers and other remnants taking refuge there," he said.