Iraq unrest offers 'opportunity'

2006-02-26 22:33

Washington - A top security advisor to US President George W Bush said on Sunday the past week's upsurge of sectarian violence across Iraq also presents a real "opportunity" for the country to unite.

US national security advisor Stephen Hadley said in an interview with CNN television on Sunday that Wednesday's bombing of a revered Shi'ite shrine in Iraq and subsequent reprisal killings offer Iraq's rival political groups the chance to bond together.

However, a senior Democrat questioned Hadley's optimism, saying Washington should review withdrawing its thousands of troops from Iraq if the Iraqis fail to get their "political house" in order soon.

"If within the next six to eight weeks, you do not create a government of national unity, if you continue to squabble, if you continue to fiddle while Baghdad burns, then we are going to have to reassess our presence," Carl Levin said.

Warning,

Asked, in an interview with ABC News television's This Week programme, if this position represented a warning that the US military could be withdrawn from Iraq, Levin replied: "Exactly."

Hadley offered a more measured reaction to the latest outbreak of unrest to hit Iraq as Levin expressed impatience with the US mission.

The bombing of one of the holiest Shi'ite shines in the Iraqi city of Samarra on Wednesday triggered sectarian bloodshed in Iraq that has left at least 120 dead and scores wounded, many of them Iraqi Sunnis.

The shrine bombing has raised fears Iraq could be on the edge of a civil war and re-ignited a fierce political debate in the United States about the American military mission there ahead of US congressional polls in November.

'Troubling'

"I think the opportunity this presents is for the Iraqi communities, all three of them, to come together, to develop a unity government and say to Iraqis and to the world that they are not going to go down the route of civil war," Hadley said.

He said the Bush administration was keeping its fingers crossed this would be the outcome, although conceded that the shrine bombing had been "very troubling".

The Bush administration has vowed to stay the course in Iraq, despite rising domestic criticism and amid some calls to withdraw from congressional Democrats.

- AFP