Iraq Press Roundup

The Hezbollah-backed, Basra-based Al Baina newspaper in an editorial Thursday titled "U.S. State Department's performance will restrict the next president's identity" said the issue of Iraq becomes more important as U.S. elections draw near.

"As the election date comes closer, the war on Iraq will increasingly be the card the Democrats would present in their confrontation against the Republicans," it said.

It said the Democrats will try to reveal the unsuccessful phases the U.S. administration went through in Iraq, as well as try to find new potentials for these phases to be used against Republicans.

It focused on a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, headed by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. It said the committee focused on Iraq's internal issues in relationship to Blackwater USA and corruption in Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government.

The paper quoted U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as saying believing in claims Maliki's government is corrupt would harm U.S.-Iraqi relations and that insurgents may be financed through corruption, but the main source of their funding comes from Iran.

The Kurdish Al Itihad Newspaper had an editorial with the headline "International clashes in Iraq."

It said that it is time to, on a strategic level, investigate the entangled relationship between Iran and Iraq.

"Any reading into the Iranian-Iraqi relationships would be faced with the reality of the Iranian-U.S. relationships," it said.

It said "the Iranian existence in Iraq wends from its policy that considers its interests in Iraq more essential than anything else, as it is the case with the U.S. existence in Iraq."

"In spite of the fact Iranians face many problems in Iraq like the bombing of the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad and U.S. forces arresting and imprisoning its citizens, Iranians are still active and have many consulates across the country," the paper said.

It said the United States faces worse problems in Iraq but doesn't leave because it has interests that need to be accomplished.

"Both the U.S. and Iran want to end each other's role in Iraq, not because either side cares about Iraq but because of their desire to dominate the country," it said.

Al Itihad said Arab countries seem to be hesitant to accept the changes in Iraq after Saddam Hussein's fall "though they helped the U.S. in invading Iraq."

It said the United States convinces Arab countries it shouldn't withdraw from Iraq by demonstrating that if the U.S. left Iraq, Iran could "fill the gap."