Security Remains an Issue, but U.S. Envoy Is Hopeful

On an unsettling day of attacks targeting the new political order in Iraq, U.S. Ambassador John D. Negroponte expressed optimism Saturday that the country’s tenuous security situation would improve.

“I’m quite hopeful,” he said in his first public remarks to foreign reporters since arriving late last month. But Negroponte acknowledged that the task was a difficult one. “We do have a plan to build up the Iraqi security forces. Is success absolutely assured? I’m not going to make that prediction.”

Negroponte arrived for an informal lunch with the reporters in a heavily armed motorcade that took a circuitous route to minimize the risk of attack. As he sat down, he shook his head and said, “I have to do something about security.”

His comments came amid a wave of attacks that targeted symbols of the new government.

In addition to a failed assassination attempt on the country’s justice minister, a police chief was assassinated in Iskandariya, a volatile town just south of Baghdad.

In nearby Mahmoudiya, an Iraqi National Guard soldier was killed and five civilians were injured when he arrested a suspected bomber, whose car exploded.

In his comments, Negroponte struck two often repeated themes: The future of the country is now in Iraqi hands, and the key to stability will be national elections, even if the process of holding them involves violence.

Both points appeared calculated to reassure Iraqis that the United States was playing a completely different role than it had before the return of sovereignty June 28 and that it would not interfere in Iraqis’ exercise of their political will.

The United States’ purpose is to act “in support of the Iraqi government,” Negroponte said. “We are no longer the ultimate political authority.”

Negroponte listed three areas in the which the United States would be active: training the new Iraqi security forces; fostering the steps that would lead to elections in early 2005; and allocating the $18.4 billion in reconstruction funds approved last year by Congress.

Negroponte, a veteran diplomat who has served in volatile places around the world, including Vietnam, Honduras and the Philippines, refused to be pinned down on such questions as when U.S. troops would leave Iraq and whether the United States would support religious radicals becoming part of the government.

“It’s got to be an Iraqi decision,” he said in answer to the question about radicals.

On one point, Negroponte was clear: The United States would oppose any effort by the Iraqi interim government to grant amnesty to fighters who have participated in attacks on Americans. Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has said that the government is working on a broad amnesty proposal for insurgents.

“I would take exception to that,” he said when asked how he would respond if the amnesty extended to those who had attacked or killed Americans.

Negroponte said that the amnesty under consideration would not extend to those who “might have killed American soldiers.”

“My understanding is that there may have been at one point some language that was ambiguous and lent itself to the interpretation that somehow amnesty would be granted to people who had sought to harm coalition forces. My understanding is that ambiguity is no longer in the draft,” he said.

He added that, in principle, the idea of a broad amnesty was a good one, “to the extent that it involves reaching out to alienated elements of this society who might be willing to come back into the political tent.”

Although clearly aware that improving the situation in Iraq is a big job, Negroponte sought to downplay his role and that of the embassy. “It’s an important embassy, I’m not suggesting that it’s not,” he said. “But it’s not a mega-embassy, it’s not a super-embassy, it’s an embassy.”

The reality, however, is that Iraq is not like any other country where the United States has a diplomatic presence. Until recently, Iraq was occupied by the U.S. and there are more American troops here than anywhere else other than on U.S. soil. Also, the amount of American money allocated for Iraq’s reconstruction far outstrips that given to any other country.

Negroponte spoke hours after the assassination attempt on Justice Minister Malik Dohan Hassan. A group associated with Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab Zarqawi, whom U.S. officials have labeled the mastermind of the worst violence in postwar Iraq, claimed responsibility on an Islamic website. The attack killed five of the minister’s bodyguards, although Hassan was unharmed.

It was the third such attempt on a member of the new government. Earlier this month, the interior minister and the minister of governorates were the targets of attacks. Although none of these assassination attempts was successful, a deputy minister was killed, as well as a provincial governor and a number of police chiefs.

In northern Iraq on Saturday, a roadside bomb hit a U.S. convoy, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding a second, the U.S. military said. The attack occurred near Bayji, about 90 miles south of the northern city of Mosul. The soldier was assigned to Task Force Olympia, which is based at Ft. Lewis, Wash.

As of Saturday, 887 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003.

On the diplomatic front Saturday, international support for Iraq’s efforts to stabilize the country continued to ebb. A Saudi trucking company said it had stopped its operations in Iraq in response to demands from kidnappers who were threatening to kill Egyptian truck driver Mohammed Gharabawi, who had worked for the company for eight years, according to news wires.

The Philippines, which has promised to withdraw its 51 troops from Iraq in response to demands from kidnappers who are threatening to behead Philippine truck driver Angelo de la Cruz, blacked out news on the status of its troops. But by Friday it had withdrawn an additional 11 soldiers, bringing the total remaining in Iraq to 32.