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From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.
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And I'm Robert Siegel.
U.S. ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad has left Iraq after 21 months on the job. In his final news conference before boarding a plane today, the ambassador sounded a cautious note of optimism. He said that during his tenure, Iraq has made positive steps along what he calls the right road.
NPR'S Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports that Khalilzad confirmed meetings between senior U.S. officials and Iraqi guerillas.
LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO: The top U.S. civilian in Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, confirmed today that members of the U.S. embassy had talks with Iraqi Sunni-led insurgent groups.
Ambassador ZALMAY KHALILZAD (U.S. Ambassador to Iraq): We have had discussions with various groups, and as I said, Iraqi government has.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: In an interview with The New York Times published Monday, he went further, saying that he had personally met in Jordan with people close to the insurgency. In the past, the U.S. has admitted that there've been contacts with Sunni guerillas, but this is the first confirmation of Khalilzad's own involvement. At the press conference, he did not detail how many meetings had taken place, but he said the aim was to bring resistance groups into the political process.
Mr. KHALILZAD: I did not say we've talked to terrorists. We have talked to groups who have not participated in the political process, who have ties with some of the insurgent groups who are reconcilable insurgents. The terrorists are irreconcilable, but there are groups that resisted the democratic change in Iraq. It is our goal to get those groups to be reconciled, to accept, to embrace this new Iraq.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: The New York Times - citing unnamed officials - said in today's edition that the talks began last year with people believe to represent the Islamic Army of Iraq and the 1920 Revolution Brigades - two militant groups who have claimed responsibility for multiple attacks and kidnappings.
Khalilzad's tenure here has been marked by controversy because of his efforts to engage Sunnis. He's an Afghan-born Sunni Muslim, and he oversaw the drafting of the constitution that brought Sunnis into the political process. But some allied to the Shiite-led government of Nouri al-Maliki had accused him of appeasing Sunnis who have blood on their hands. Falah Hassan Shanshal is a Shiite Member of Parliament allied to Maliki.
Mr. FALAH HASSAN SHANSHAL (Shiite Parliament Member): (Through translator) Throughout his tenure, Khalilzad was sectarian-minded and never contributed seriously to solving the Iraqi crisis. He wanted to pass laws in partnership with the Baathist followers of Saddam Hussein and the killers of the Iraqi people.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: But for Sunnis who had look at the rise of Shiite power here with fear, he was seen as a friend. Dhafer al-Ani is a Sunni MP.
Mr. DHAFER AL-ANI (Sunni MP, Iraqi Accordance Front): (Through translator) I hail him because he recognizes the great mistakes committed by the American administration in Iraq since the invasion to date. And he had the will to rectify those mistakes.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Khalilzad is part of the group of neoconservatives who advised the Bush administration on the planning of the Afghan and Iraq wars. He served as ambassador to Afghanistan before arriving in Iraq in 2005. Khalilzad is being replaced by Ryan Crocker, and if confirmed, his next posting will at the United Nations.
Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR News, Baghdad. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
