U.S. won’t push to disarm militias

WASHINGTON – The White House said Monday that it is working with the Iraqi leadership to end religious violence, but it cautioned against pushing too hard on the fragile government.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said it would be counterproductive to threaten to withdraw U.S. forces if goals aren’t reached. “We’re not in the business of issuing ultimatums,” Snow said.

Snow made the remarks amid growing concerns that Iraq’s government is not taking action to reach a political consensus that would disarm private militias blamed for much of the violence.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said he will disarm the militias later this year or early next.

Bush administration officials say the United States has to be wary of pushing Iraqi leaders to act too quickly. “It’s an important distinction between a set timetable where we’ll say, ‘Regardless of what happens on the ground, we’re going to pull our troops out,’ and setting up milestones or benchmarks that’ll incentivize the Iraqi government to take more responsibility,” White House counselor Dan Bartlett said on NBC’s “Today” show Monday.

Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander there, are to appear at a news conference in Baghdad on Tuesday to discuss efforts to improve security.

National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones said Casey and Khalilzad will highlight progress in Iraq, including the training of Iraqi security forces and the U.S. military’s successes in neutralizing the improvised bombs that are a major weapon of insurgents. “There is slow but sustained progress,” Jones said.

Al-Maliki’s government is weak, and pushing too hard could destabilize it, said Judith Yaphe, a researcher at the National Defense University in Washington. The prime minister has little political support, she said, even within the Shiite party.

An important part of his support comes from Muqtada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric behind the Mahdi Army, one of the largest militias in Baghdad. “To ask him now to get rid of the Mahdi Army – that might be difficult for him to do even if he wanted to do it,” Yaphe said. “What if you try and fail? Then you’re discredited.”

Al-Maliki’s government is trying for a political deal to disarm militias at the same time U.S. and Iraqi troops are trying to calm the streets. The government has said only a political consensus will lead to permanent peace.

Security for as many as nine of Iraq’s 18 provinces could be handed to the government by the end of this year, according to a Defense Department report to Congress.

“There’s no doubt in my mind but that some of those projections we won’t make; it will be later, or even earlier in some instances,” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday.