AP: Maliki would not talk to Bush with Jordan's Sunni king listening in

[sabra]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20061130-1241-iraq-malikissnub.html

In Maliki's snub, a sign of rising Shiite-Sunni tensions in the Mideast
By Sally Buzbee
ASSOCIATED PRESS

CAIRO, Egypt – Iraq's Shiite leader was firm, his aides say – he would not talk to President Bush with Jordan's Sunni king listening in.

That startling show of mistrust in a neighbor led to a cancellation of a meeting between the three leaders Wednesday night and sent a cold shiver across the Middle East on Thursday, raising fears of a region-wide Sunni-Shiite split that the United States may be powerless to control and Iran could benefit from.

...

But two senior officials traveling with al-Maliki, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the information's sensitivity, said the prime minister had not wanted to travel to Jordan in the first place and decided, once in Amman, that he did not want “a third party” in talks with Bush.

“We insisted that the meeting be canceled,” said one official. “Iraq does not need a third party to be involved.”

...

The Bush administration had hoped to calm Iraq in part by getting Sunni insurgent sympathizers into talks with al-Maliki's Shiite-led government. It has pushed Sunni allies like Jordan to take the lead.

The events of the last few days show that may be dicey.

[xultar]

1. Who would actually believe this bullshit. How dare BFFE cause further

Middle East chaos by planting bullshit stories like this.

[Redstone]

2. Fucking idiot. That's like saying "I'm Catholic, and I don't want a Protestant to hear

what I'm saying."

Those people (yes, I mean Muslims, but ONLY the ones who act like that) are utterly fucking irrational if this is true.

And yes, I DO think that the Catholics and Protestants who were / are killing each other in Northern Ireland are / were utterly fucking irrational as well.

Redstone

[MADem]

3. Well, he figured Abdullah would report every word to the House of Saud

Because they have him, in essence, on their payroll. But he's a total douche if he actually thinks that BushCo won't tell the House of Saud exactly what went down--hell, there was probably a secret camera recording the whole thing, like a Sanka commercial!!!

al-Malaki is showing himself to be a puppet of Sadr, who takes orders from Teheran. It is gonna be dicey, but mark my words, the Saudis and the rest of the Sunni powerhouses are not gonna sit idly by and let the shi'a Persians gain hegemony over Arab Iraq. It just will not happen, because if it does, there will be killing a-plenty in the sunni neighborhoods, worse than there is now.

...It would also be detrimental to Iraq if its neighbors begin taking sides in its internal fight, intensifying the march toward all-out civil war.

Yet both appear to be happening, as moderate Sunni governments like Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, long known as the region's powers, exhibit rising distrust toward newly influential Shiites in the region – and vice versa.

Jordanian officials played down Wednesday's flap, saying there had been no plans for a formal three-way meeting among Bush, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Jordan's King Abdullah II, only a brief social call. The U.S. asserted the same.

Al-Maliki said he meant no snub to either Abdullah or Bush and noted he already had met separately with the king. “That was not part of our agenda, a trilateral meeting,” he said. ...

[madrchsod]

4. al maliki is a dead man walking

and he knows it. he is buying some time by showing he`s not bush`s stooge.

[MrCoffee]

5. the least powerful man in Iraq...

Maliki is desperately trying to hold onto his "government". al Sadr has all the cards, and this Jordanian foolishness just makes Maliki look like a buffoon.