Pressure on Shiites Is Giving the U.S. New Ally in Sunnis

U.S. officials privately acknowledge that their relations with many Shiite leaders have frayed, but they say they are eager to maintain strong ties to Shiites, who make up an estimated 60 percent of Iraq's population. "You have to keep in mind that the Shiites will be the most important force in the government," one U.S. official said in a recent interview. "We will be working with them."

In an apparent nod to Shiite sentiment, Rice went out of her way during her recent visit to thank Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the country's most revered Shiite cleric, for "his wisdom and his courage and his leadership."

Yet Rice's praise for Sunni politicians was similarly effusive. After her dinner in Baghdad, which in addition to Hashimi included Kurdish leaders and Saleh Mutlak, a Sunni politician who has long been accused of ties to Iraqi insurgent groups, Rice noted what she called a "considerable maturing of the Sunni political leadership." Later, in an interview with CBS News, she called the Sunnis' entry into politics "one of the most extraordinary developments" of the past year.

Mutlak, Hashimi and others say that after months of raising concerns with U.S. officials in Baghdad, they finally feel that their voices are being heard -- and echoed in recent statements by Khalilzad and officials in Washington.

For nearly a year, Sunni leaders have accused the Shiite militias operating out of the Shiite-led Interior Ministry of operating death squads and secret prisons. Responding to a wave of militia violence in the wake of the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, U.S. officials have said dealing with the militias should be one of the government's top priorities.

"They used to say to me, 'Mr. Hashimi, you are exaggerating. It is not as bad as you say.' Nobody listened to us," said the leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, which like Shiite parties faced repression under Hussein's rule. "But after February 22, our voice was very clear about militias, and they had an encouraging response. They acknowledged the fears we declared."

Khalilzad's recent statements about Iran, which the United States has accused of training and arming Shiite militias as well as Sunni insurgent groups, also echoed a long-expressed Sunni complaint.

Mutlak said he told Rice at the dinner that the sectarian tension between Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites had arrived with the U.S. invasion force in 2003. "I am not sure she agreed or not," he said. "But she listened to me. When they came to Iraq, absolutely they were biased to the Shiites. I think they are being more evenhanded than what they were before. They realized they cannot solve the problems in Iraq without us."

Sunni leaders say the new U.S. stance has opened the way for dialogue between U.S. officials and Sunni-led insurgent groups. Khalilzad, while circumspect about details, has acknowledged such contacts in recent weeks.

Mutlak said Americans have held discussions mostly with smaller insurgent groups linked to better-known armed groups. Among the issues on the table, predicated on insurgents laying down their weapons, he said, are amnesty for some categories of insurgents, incorporating more Sunnis into Iraq's security forces, economic support for impoverished Sunni regions and a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawals.

"I think if they can reach a good agreement with these groups, they can jump to bigger groups," he said. "But it is just beginning."