The next purged Neo-Con Slug: Zalmay Khalilzad

U.S. Envoy Khalilzad to Leave Iraq, Officials Say

By Janine Zacharia and Bill Varner
Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) — Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, plans to leave his post and will be replaced by Ryan Crocker, the current ambassador to Pakistan, according to two officials familiar with the matter.

Khalilzad has been the U.S. point man in trying to restore security and stability to Iraq in the face of widening sectarian violence since starting the job in June 2005. Crocker, a career diplomat, has served in postings around the Middle East and was a deputy assistant secretary for the region before going to Pakistan in 2004.

A Bush administration official and a UN diplomat separately described the planned changes. The administration official said the switch would take place early next year. The United Nations ambassadorship being vacated by John Bolton, who announced today he will be leaving that post, is a job that may be open to the 55-year-old Khalilzad, according to the administration official.

The administration official said what job Khalilzad would get next was among the most hotly debated personnel matters within the government. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is considering him for deputy secretary of state or the role of her counselor, in addition to the UN post, the official said.

Crocker will be replaced as ambassador to Pakistan by David Satterfield, Rice's adviser on Iraq, the administration official said.

Iraq is in focus this week as a bipartisan panel led by former Secretary of State James Baker III and former Representative Lee Hamilton prepares to issue its advice on how the U.S. might extricate itself from the country.

Sunni Outreach
Khalilzad, often referred to as Zal by American officials, wielded influence in Afghanistan as U.S. ambassador before departing for Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. In Iraq, Khalilzad has tried to bridge the sectarian divide, according to Peter Khalil, an Australian diplomat who served in Baghdad as an adviser to former U.S. envoy L. Paul Bremer in 2003 and 2004.
``The main thing he accomplished was to reach out to Sunni tribes and leaders and get them to become part of the political process, said Khalil, now with the Eurasia Group, a New York- based organization that analyzes political risk for businesses. ``This was a qualified success because although Sunni participation increased, the insurgency hasn't stopped, and his outreach antagonized Shiite leaders.

Bush, Shiites
President George W. Bush today urged the leader of one of the most powerful Shiite parties in Iraq to reject religious extremism and work harder to quell the factional violence in the war-torn country.

``Part of unifying Iraq is for the elected leaders and society leaders to reject the extremists that are trying to stop the advance of this young democracy,'' Bush said at the White House after meeting with Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Bush plans to meet soon with a Sunni leader from Iraq to seek ways to prod the Iraqi government toward reconciliation.

Khalilzad, asked yesterday by CNN about his plans, said his ``immediate agenda is to help Iraqis fight ``extremism and to strengthen long-term ties with the U.S.
Satterfield, Rice's adviser, has been negotiating with Arab states on an accord aimed at building up the current Iraqi leadership.

The State Department is dealing with other shifts among top officials. Philip Zelikow, who as counselor to Rice advised her on a wide range of issues, is leaving the first week of January to return to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The deputy secretary job has been vacant since Robert Zoellick left in September to become a vice chairman at New York-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Crocker worked for three months in Baghdad in 2003 as part of the U.S.-led occupation authority, according to a State Department biography. Before going to Pakistan, he held ambassador postings in Syria, Kuwait and Lebanon.

Original article posted here.