9.6 |
27 June 2007 to April 2008
Mr Prentice.390
Mr Prentice
reported that the Speaker had been grateful for the
message,
as he had
been for President Bush’s personal telephone call: it was
encouraging that
friends of
Iraq and the major powers paid close attention to developments in
the Council
of
Representatives and showed support for their
achievements.
809.
Speaker
Mashhadani told Mr Prentice that once the Council had returned
from its
break there
were three more key subjects to be addressed: oil, elections and
Kirkuk.
Mr Prentice
observed that “the next three political challenges are even more
politically
charged
than the last”. Implementing the three new laws was also “key” in
the Speaker’s
eyes. For
the Amnesty Law in particular there was “a real danger of
heightened
expectations,
particularly among the Sunni community, being let down by the
limited
scope of
the legislation”.
810.
On 15
February, the Financial
Times published an
article reporting the details of a
witness
statement made by Mr Hilal al-Jedda.391
Mr al-Jedda,
a former British detainee,
was
reported to have said that “British military officers agreed on a
schedule to release
all
detainees in return for a pledge by the militia to cease attacks on
British forces”. The
article
reported that the negotiations had involved Maj Gen Shaw and
“members of a
Shia milita
associated with the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army”.
He also
reported
that a Defence Advisory Notice (often referred to as a D-Notice)
had been
issued,
requesting that the identities of Iraqi negotiators and the reason
why Mr al-Jedda
might have
been privy to details of the talks should be withheld.
811.
On 17
February, Mr Adnan al-Asadi, the Iraqi Deputy Interior
Minister, briefed
the MCNS
that the Ministry of the Interior had formed a committee to look at
issues
surrounding
election security.392
Protection
of election materials, officials and offices
would be
paramount, and MNF and MOD help would be required. He considered
that
clashes
were likely in the South.
812.
In his 21
February weekly report to Lt Gen Houghton, Maj Gen
White-Spunner
concluded
that “everyone, for the time being, is doing the right tasks and
doing them
well” but
that “we now need to think about the spring and summer very
carefully … we
could,
depending on whether or not Sadr continues his freeze, be in a more
difficult
813.
Maj Gen
White-Spunner reported that the increases in indirect fire reported
by
Maj Gen
Binns at the end of January had continued into February. In the
week leading
up to 22
February, when the JAM freeze was to expire, there had been six
confirmed
attacks
including the first 240mm rocket since August 2007. He shared his
predecessor’s
390
eGram
6041/08 Baghdad to FCO London, 18 February 2008, ‘Iraq: Message
Delivered to Speaker
Mashhadani’.
391
Financial
Times, 15
February 2008, Iraq prison
release deal alleged.
392
eGram
6052/08 Baghdad to FCO London, 18 February 2008, ‘Iraq Ministerial
Committee on National
Security 17
February’.
393
Minute
White-Spunner to CJO, 21 February 2008, ‘GOC MND(SE) Weekly Letter
– 21 February 2008’.
331