Bush Praises New Iraqi Prime Minister

WASHINGTON — President Bush said today that the naming of an interim government in Iraq takes that nation one more step toward sovereignty, but that the violence there underscores the challenge facing U.S. troops and their allies and the threat to the fight against terrorism.

At a time when pollsters are finding growing opposition among Americans to the U.S. role in Iraq, the president emphasized that the new prime minister chosen in Iraq had expressed gratitude today toward the United States in the continuing war there.

Bush turned a brief statement in the White House Rose Garden into a half-hour news conference, stepping up his public focus on Iraq on the eve of a major speech on security Wednesday at the U.S. Air Force Academy, and in a series of stops in Europe over the weekend.

“The naming of the new interim government brings us one step closer to realizing the dream of millions of Iraqis, a fully sovereign nation with a representative government that protects their rights and serves their needs,” the president said.

Bush praised Ayad Alawi, chosen by U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, to be the interim prime minister, as “a strong leader” who “endured exile for decades and survived assassination attempts” by the regime of Saddam Hussein.

“He was trained as a physician, has worked as a businessman and has always been an Iraqi patriot,” the president said.

The interim government is to take over on June 30 from the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority. Its main task, Bush said, is to prepare the country for elections next January.

His remarks served to underscore one of the prime concerns on the day that the new government was chosen: Will the central role played by the United Nations in picking the government ministers undermine their credibility and raise questions about their independence?

Asked what role he had played in naming the cabinet, Bush said: “I had no role. I mean, occasionally somebody said this person may be interested or that, but I had no role in picking, zero.”

But he acknowledged that the U.S. government had at times helped some of those who are now in the interim government, “because they were fierce anti-Saddam people.”

Bush praised the diversity of the 33-member cabinet, which he said included five regional officials and six women.

“Today’s violence underscores that freedom in Iraq is opposed by violent men who seek the failure not only of this interim government, but of all progress toward liberty,” Bush said.

He added:

“The return of tyranny to Iraq would embolden the terrorists, leading to more bombings, more beheadings, and more murders of the innocent around the world.”

The president continued to link the war in Iraq with the campaign against terrorism, and said: “A free Iraq will be a decisive blow to terrorism at the heart of its power, and a victory for the civilized world and for the security of America.”