Zalmay Khalilzad
PER
Khalilzad Zalmay Zalmay Khalilzad
The American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, has reached out to Sunnis, pushing to include them in the government and pressing Shiite leaders hard to keep politicians with ties to Shiite militias out of sensitive security posts. Mr. Khalilzad said Monday that the United States would not invest the resources of the American people in Iraqi security forces if they were run by people who are sectarian. The comment provoked unusually direct criticism from Shiite leaders, some of whom suggested that maligning the Iraqi security leadership led to the attack on the mosque in Samarra on Wednesday. In Baghdad and among some experts, there were questions about how much Mr. Khalilzad's influence could help broker a political solution given the anger between Shiites and Sunnis, and the Shiite anger at Mr. Khalilzad himself.