Iraq seeks cash, troops? Afghanistan strategy questioned

Maliki to seek Russian debt relief

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is expected to ask Moscow to write off the remainder of the country's debt during an April visit to Russia, a spokesman said.

Moscow in 2008 agreed to cancel 93 percent, $12 billion, of Iraq's debt following the signing of a bilateral agreement. Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said at the time that 65 percent of that debt would be canceled in the initial stages.

The Russian finance minister said then that Iraq would pay a portion of the remaining debt beginning in 2009.

Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman, said Maliki would discuss bilateral ties as well as the remainder of the arrears with Russia during his April visit, RIA Novosti reports.

"The head of the Iraqi government will discuss writing off the remainder of the debt (to Russia)," he said.

U.S. may stay on in Mosul

U.S. forces may stay active against insurgents in Mosul beyond a June deadline if the Iraqi government requests it, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said.

American military forces in Iraq are obligated to pull out of Iraqi cities to their bases by June 30 under the terms of the bilateral Status of Forces Agreement that replaced the U.N. mandate for multinational forces in Iraq.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced in February that major combat operations in Iraq would end in August 2010, and Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said this week that roughly 12,000 combat forces would leave the country within the next six months.

Odierno told ABC News, however, that his forces could remain deployed in Mosul beyond the June deadline if requested by the Iraqi government.

"If they ask us to stay, we will probably stay and help them out," he said. "If they ask us to just provide them the advising and training support, then we'll do that."

Mosul is considered one of the remaining strongholds of al-Qaida militants in Iraq. The area also witnessed a spate of attacks on the Christian minority population there, which displaced roughly half of that population last fall.

Meanwhile, a suicide car bomb killed 33 and wounded another 20 people Tuesday during a tribal conference in the city of Abu Ghraib, CNN reports. The Tuesday incident follows a moderate uptick in the level of violence in Iraq since the January provincial elections.

At least 30 people were killed Sunday when an attacker drove a motorcycle rigged with explosives into a group of police recruits in Baghdad.

Iran, Iraq talk economics

Iraqi and Iranian officials Tuesday discussed investment opportunities both in Iraq and in the broader Middle East, though bilateral tensions remain.

Jalal al-Nouri, the Iranian consul in Basra, discussed investment opportunities in the bustling port region with provincial leaders, the Voices of Iraq news agency reports.

The Iraqi Parliament last week agreed on a 2009 budget that included drastic cutbacks amid declining oil revenue. Provincial leaders in Basra, however, hailed an economic conference there Thursday as a sign of the re-emergence of the southern regional economy.

Meanwhile, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani left for Tehran on Tuesday to take part in the annual meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization, which kicks off Wednesday.

Iran and Iraq have made a series of diplomatic gestures since the overthrow of the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003, though the al-Sumaria satellite channel reports that Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said there were concerns remaining over issues surrounding the Shatt al-Arab waterway.

"Our longtime attempts to convince Iran about the necessity and the importance of moving forward together, in order to avoid problems, have been frustrated," he said.

Amnesty calls for transparency at Bagram

Amnesty International called on Washington to provide transparency concerning the number of detainees held at the Bagram detention facility in Afghanistan.

Judge John Bates with the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., ordered U.S. President Barack Obama to reveal the number of detainees held at Bagram by Wednesday as part of an inquiry into whether they could challenge their detention in U.S. courts.

Amnesty in a report called on the Obama administration to honor the request, saying transparency "must be central to U.S. detention policy."

Amnesty noted that the previous administration responded to a similar order from Bates by classifying details about the Bagram detention facility.

Beyond the need for transparency, Amnesty said all detainees held at the Bagram facility should have access to independent courts in order to challenge their detention.

"Judicial review is a basic safeguard against abuse of executive powers and a fundamental safeguard against arbitrary and secret detention, torture and other ill-treatment and unlawful transfers from one country or government to another," the report said.

Biden pledges holistic approach to Afghanistan

The challenges facing the international community are manifested in Afghanistan, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said at NATO headquarters Tuesday.

Biden said he recognized the world has grown weary of the war in Afghanistan, now entering its eighth year. But the problems of poverty, failed states and sectarian conflict are challenges not just for the United States but the world of democratic nations.

"And nowhere is that challenge more acute than in Afghanistan," he said.

U.S. President Barack Obama put Afghanistan at the center of his foreign policy agenda, pledging an increase in the number of American forces in Afghanistan.

The vice president said Washington would cooperate with its NATO allies as it works to reassess the strategy in Afghanistan while the U.S.-led effort in Iraq moves away from war fighting.

"I heard from our allies," he said. "I heard the concerns, and they listed their priorities. And I pledged to them, as I pledge to all Europeans now, that we will build their ideas into our review, which we expect to present to President Obama before the end of this month, in preparation of the NATO summit in April."

Obama's Afghan strategy raises eyebrows

Embracing moderate Taliban elements while increasing the U.S. troop presence may not be the panacea U.S. President Barack Obama envisions for Afghanistan.

Obama led a chorus of voices last week saying the U.S. military was losing the war in Afghanistan. He told The New York Times, however, his strategy for Afghanistan included an additional 17,000 American forces to support NATO forces, while looking to reconcile with some elements in the Taliban.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai offered praise for the Obama strategy, but with the Kabul government barely extending its authority beyond the city limits and questions already emanating from Washington, that strategy may be ambitious at best, Time magazine reports.

The Afghan strategy under the Obama administration is modeled after the U.S. counterinsurgency effort in Iraq, which saw U.S. forces courting Sunni elements to fight against a common enemy in al-Qaida. But Obama, in The New York Times interview, recognized the situation in Afghanistan was "complex" compared to Iraq.

Unlike in Iraq, where al-Qaida forces were foreign entities in the country, the Taliban are part of the domestic landscape in Afghanistan. Afghan officials, for their part, said embracing the Taliban may not be as easy as it sounds given the current political landscape.

"Probably they will have some demands of their own, and we might have to be more accepting of those demands, like increased cultural conservatism," said Anwar-ul-Haq Ahadi, former finance minister and presidential candidate. "But if they say we will not accept a leadership based on elections, I am not sure we can accept that."

Afghanistan holds presidential elections in August.

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(dgraeber@upi.com)