Iraq talks begin late

AMMAN, Jordan – President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki today opened talks originally set to begin Wednesday but postponed following disclosure of U.S. doubts about the Iraqi leader’s capabilities and a Baghdad protest of his attendance.

Instead of talks over two days, the stunning turn of events found Bush and al-Maliki meeting only today for a working breakfast and a longer session afterward. The Iraqi prime minister came to Bush’s hotel, and the pair were to appear before reporters at the end of nearly two and a half hours together.

The abrupt cancellation of Wednesday’s opening session was an almost unheard-of development in the high-level diplomatic circles of a U.S. president, a king and a prime minister. Confusion – and conflicting explanations – ensued .

In Iraq, lawmakers and Cabinet ministers allied with Shiite cleric and militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, a bloc that was pivotal in bringing al-Maliki to power in May, launched a boycott Wednesday of their governmental duties to protest al-Maliki’s decision to meet with Bush. At the same time, relations between the U.S. and Iraqi governments were complicated by the leak of a confidential White House memo suggesting the Bush administration was close to losing confidence in al-Maliki’s ability to deliver results.

At the Pentagon, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday that the U.S. military is bolstering its forces in Baghdad to deal with “unacceptable” levels of violence there.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace said that the senior U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., is moving “a couple of battalions” to Baghdad from elsewhere in the country and is determining how many troops he can move to the capital without creating gaps in other parts of Iraq. A Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the battalions would replace units being rotated out of the country.

In addition, the official said, the Joint Chiefs are considering calling up 2,800 troops from four Army Reserve combat engineer battalions and sending them to Baghdad and other Iraqi cities in early January. Such a call-up could be politically sensitive, because three of the reserve battalions have already deployed, meaning some soldiers in the units could be involuntarily mobilized for a second time. Under Pentagon policy, that would require the Defense secretary to grant an exemption.

As late as Wednesday afternoon, it appeared that the White House was planning to go ahead with a three-way meeting that evening among Bush, al-Maliki and King Abdullah of Jordan. But when reporters showed up at the palace where the meeting was to take place, they were told by White House counselor Dan Bartlett that the session was off.

Officials later said Bush planned to meet with al-Maliki this morning and signaled that the focus of their talks would be on how to strengthen the capacity of the Iraqi government to quell sectarian violence.

White House officials said the cancellation on Wednesday had nothing to do with al-Maliki’s political problems at home or the leak of a memo, written for Bush by national security adviser Stephen Hadley, that was published in Wednesday’s New York Times.

Bartlett said al-Maliki had already had a productive meeting with Abdullah on Wednesday, and that Bush and al-Maliki both felt “there was not an agenda for the three for a trilateral that they felt was necessary.”

“No one should read too much into this,” Bartlett said.

White House press secretary Tony Snow said that “there’s no snub” by al-Maliki.

Two senior administration officials, at a contentious background briefing with White House reporters who repeatedly challenged their explanation, said all the parties involved believed it would be more productive to have two separate meetings, one on Wednesday between Bush and Abdullah and one today between Bush and al-Maliki. They noted that Bush and the king had a variety of issues to discuss, including broader Middle East peace initiatives and the situation in Lebanon.

Abdullah had made clear that he planned to use his own meeting with Bush to push for a renewed U.S. drive to address the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, which the king has described as the “core” issue in the region. White House aides said the king pressed Bush during a dinner meeting Wednesday to move faster to resolve the so-far intractable problem.

Administration officials insisted that the president maintains full confidence in al-Maliki, despite the bluntly worded Nov. 8 memo by Hadley raising pointed doubts about the prime minister’s ability to curb sectarian violence.

“His intentions seem good when he talks with Americans, and sensitive reporting suggests he is trying to stand up to the Shia hierarchy and force positive change,” Hadley wrote. “But the reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests al-Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action.”

Administration officials would not discuss the memo on the record, saying it remains classified despite its publication. One senior official said it was appropriate for Hadley, who visited Baghdad and met with al-Maliki several weeks ago, to raise “probing questions” about the government but said the memo did not constitute a “summary judgment” about the current Iraqi government.