CRAWFORD, Texas — President Bush yesterday rejected calls to postpone the planned June 30 turnover of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government, saying “this is precisely what our enemies want.”
The president said that the recent surge of fighting in Iraq is being caused by a “small faction” of holdovers from the Saddam Hussein regime who are attempting to derail Iraqi democracy and seize power.
“Some have suggested that we should respond to the recent attacks by delaying Iraqi sovereignty. This is precisely what our enemies want. They want to dictate the course of events in Iraq and to prevent the Iraqi people from having a true voice in their future,” Mr. Bush said in his weekly radio address.
Democrats quickly criticized the president’s decision to adhere to the scheduled turnover. Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, delivering his party’s weekly radio address, said the transfer of power should take place only if it is sanctioned by the United Nations.
“Embracing the U.N. as a full partner in deciding the makeup of an interim Iraqi government and the timing of the turnover of sovereignty would help distribute the burdens of stabilizing Iraq more equitably,” said Mr. Levin, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Enlisting the support of the United Nations also would signal an end to “a unilateralism that has alienated our friends,” he said, expressing a concern that the situation in Iraq could lead to “civil war.”
Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats’ presidential candidate, has called for a delay in turnover of power to Iraqis, which Republicans see as an attempt to politicize the issue and keep it alive until Election Day.
On Friday, Mr. Kerry said the Bush administration has alienated foreign leaders through unilateral actions. “This administration has stubbornly refused to involve other countries in the real decision-making,” the Massachusetts liberal said.
“I think this is a failure of diplomacy, a failure of foreign policy, a failure of creative leadership,” he said.
Mr. Bush said the United Nations already is playing a vital role in helping the United States adhere to a timetable agreed upon by the Iraqi Governing Council and leading Iraqis.
“At this moment, United Nations special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is conducting intensive consultations with a wide range of Iraqis on the structure of the interim government that will assume control on July the 1st. We welcome this U.N. engagement,” he said, noting that a March agreement with Iraqis “offers the timetable for elections and paves the way for a permanent constitution.”
The president said that after the transfer of power, the United States will remain in Iraq to ensure an orderly transition.
“The transition to sovereignty will mark the beginning of a new government and the end of the coalition’s administrative duties. But the coalition’s commitment to Iraq will continue,” Mr. Bush said.
“We will establish a new American embassy to protect our nation’s interests. We will continue helping the Iraqi people reconstruct their economy, undermined by decades of dictatorship and corruption.”
Fierce battles continued yesterday in central Iraq, leaving at least one airman dead and two others injured in a mortar attack on a U.S. air base north of Baghdad. Street fighting erupted in northwest Baghdad’s Sunni Muslim Adhimiya district, where youths with rifles and grenade launchers battled U.S. troops and attacked a police station.
Meanwhile in Fallujah, the site of the heaviest casualties on both sides, U.S. forces offered rebels a cease-fire to allow for peace talks after days of fighting.
One member of the U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council suspended his membership in the body and another threatened to quit, to protest the Marines’ siege of Fallujah. A third, one of the strongest pro-U.S. voices on the council, denounced the siege.
But the president said “Saddam supporters and terrorists” are responsible for strikes against coalition forces in some cities and must be countered.
“In other areas, attacks were incited by a radical named Muqtada al-Sadr, who is wanted for the murder of a respected Shi’ite cleric. Al-Sadr has called for violence against coalition troops, and his band of thugs have terrorized Iraqi police and ordinary citizens,” he said.
In response, Mr. Bush said, coalition forces are “conducting a multi-city offensive. In Fallujah, Marines of Operation Vigilant Resolve are taking control of the city, block by block. Further south, troops of Operation Resolute Sword have taken the initiative from al-Sadr’s militia.”
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