US envoy says coming months critical for Iraq

Baghdad, Apr 23: The US ambassador to Baghdad said today the months ahead for Iraq's government would be ''critical'', adding the country's leaders needed to make progress on reconciling warring communities.

Ryan Crocker, in his first news conference since arriving in Baghdad late last month, said Iraq needed to pass key legislation seen as vital to healing divisions between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs.

He urged the government to make use of a US-backed security plan in the capital to move forward on reconciliation.

''I think the Baghdad security plan ... can buy time but what it does is buy time for what it ultimately has to be -- a set of political understandings among Iraqis. So I think these months ahead are going to be critical,'' Crocker said.

Crocker was echoing remarks made by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad last week.

REUTERS

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