Biden lands in Iraq to help ease tensions, keep nation on track for March elections

Biden in Iraq to help ease pre-election tensions

BAGHDAD — Vice President Joe Biden brought Washington’s concerns about Iraqi political tensions directly to leaders in Baghdad on Friday, but officials appeared to leave little room for outside mediation over whether to ban hundreds of election candidates for suspected links to Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Washington fears the blacklist — now more than 500 candidates and expected to grow — could set back reconciliation efforts between the majority Shiites who gained power with Saddam’s fall and the Sunnis who hope to regain greater political footing in parliamentary elections on March 7.

Biden’s two-day trip underscores the concern by the White House that the growing sectarian tensions could seriously mar the election, which has been seen as an important step in healing Iraq’s wartime divides and allowing the Pentagon to accelerate troop withdrawals.

Iraq, however, appeared reluctant to accept Washington’s direct intervention — another sign that the ability of U.S. officials to influence Iraqi affairs is rapidly fading.

Moments after Biden arrived, Iraq’s presidential spokesman, Nasser al-Ani, said Iraq was willing to listen to suggestions on easing the political standoff caused by the blacklist, but he noted: “Nobody can interfere in Iraqi affairs … Biden or others.”

The spokesman for the Shiite-led government, Ali al-Dabbagh, also drew a clear line on outside views over Iraq’s efforts to identify and weed out suspected supporters of Saddam’s now-outlawed Baath party.

“It is an internal affair that should be discussed by Iraqi political entities,” he said.

Biden’s national security adviser, Tony Blinken, played down the vice president’s role in mediating the dispute and said the vice president did not plan to push for one solution over another.

“It’s not for any outsider to tell Iraq how to resolve this issue,” Blinken said.

He said the Obama administration wants to be sure the dispute does not cast doubt on the legitimacy of the upcoming election.

“We’re not proposing solutions to them,” Blinken said. “We’re listening.”

The issue is a lightning rod in Iraq.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — a Shiite who has been supported by Washington — has spearheaded the drive against suspected Saddam loyalists. He has directly blamed Baath party operatives for recent blasts in Baghdad, including a series of bombings in early December that killed more than 125 people.

Sunnis — who were favored under Saddam — complain that Shiite-led authorities are engaging in a blanket purge that does not distinguish between high-ranking Saddam henchmen and others who backed the Baath party out of necessity to retain jobs or educational opportunities. Some Sunni political leaders also claim the government is trying to weaken Sunni chances before the election to determine the next parliament.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is from the northern Kurdish region, has turned to the courts.

Talabani earlier this week asked for a judicial opinion on the legitimacy of the vetting panel that issued the blacklist, which so far has 511 names of suspected Baath supporters that include both Sunnis and Shiites. The courts are expected to examine whether the committee had the authority to make the decision since it was not given a green light by parliament.

The vetting panel is led by Ali al-Lami, a Shiite once detained by the U.S. military over a 2008 attack in a Shiite district of Baghdad. He is also a candidate in the March elections.

In the meantime, the list is expected to grow.

Iraq’s electoral commission chief, Faraj al-Haidari, said he expects more candidates to be blacklisted because of suspected Baath ties. The additional names — which could be added as early as Saturday — will include military men who carried forged documents and people with criminal records, he told The Associated Press.

Al-Maliki appeared Friday to be standing by the committee, telling Shiite tribal leaders during a meeting in southern Iraq that they should not support Baathists.”Baathists are the ones who brought terrorism and created sectarian divisions among people,” al-Maliki said.

An aide to radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr condemned U.S. intervention in the upcoming election.

“The exclusion of criminal Baathists from the political process is a necessity, and this should have been done before now,” Sheik Abdul-Hadi al-Mohammadawi, told worshippers in Kufa, 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad. “Those people should not be allowed to rejoin the political process.”

Also in southern Iraq, excavation began Friday on a Saddam-era mass grave near the Shiite holy city of Karbala, said Ihab Abbas of the Ministry of Human Rights.

The remains of about 20 bodies are believed to be in the grave, which was discovered about four years ago, Abbas said. Authorities believe the grave dates back to Saddam’s suppression of a 1991 Shiite uprising after Iraqi forces were driven from Kuwait by U.S.-led forces.

Associated Press Writers Chelsea J. Carter and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.