Analysis: Envoy Leaves a Struggling Iraq

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the U.S. Embassy in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, in this May 2006 file photo.On his first day as U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad said al-Qaida in Iraq and Sunni insurgents wanted to start a civil war. He leaves his post this week with the U.S. military and Iraqi security forces battling to prevent a sectarian conflagration in Baghdad. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) (Hadi Mizban - AP)

On Thursday, a Katyusha rocket slammed into the Green Zone about 50 yards from where U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was holding a press conference with al-Maliki. There were no serious casualties but videotape of Ban, ducking and looking frightened by the explosion, dominated television screens.

A day later, an insurgent suicide bomber got within feet of one of Iraq's two deputy prime ministers, Salam al-Zubaie, wounding the top Sunni official seriously and killing nine others during Friday prayers at the private mosque attached to his home.

While Khalilzad was able to persuade al-Maliki to give American forces a free hand in the security operation and to keep the Mahdi Army largely out of sight, the U.S. envoy has had a difficult relationship with the Iraqi leader.

At one point last year, al-Maliki declared that while he was a friend of the United States, "I am not America's man in Iraq."

Al-Maliki also has promised his government will ensure passage of an oil law, a measure with overriding importance for the Bush administration; take action to ensure national reconciliation; set a date for local elections, and make progress on constitutional amendments.

So far all those measures have languished.

Al-Maliki aides have said the prime minister has been notified by "people in the U.S. Embassy" that the United States would withdraw backing for his government if the benchmarks are not met by June 30.

The Bush administration says there has been no threat, but if a tough message was delivered, it most certainly came from Khalilzad.

Khalilzad's mission was a true high-wire act, certainly one of the most challenging for a U.S. diplomat in recent history. And reflecting those difficulties, Iraqis gave him mixed marks.

For example, Ali al-Alaq, a senior lawmaker from al-Maliki's Dawa Party, said Khalilzad was biased in favor of fellow Sunnis: "We hope the new ambassador will be more evenhanded with all Iraq's sects."

But Barham Salah, one of two deputy prime ministers and a Kurd, whose people have benefited greatly from the American presence, saw it otherwise: "At times, he seemed to care for the success of the new Iraq more than some Iraqi leaders did and he leaves with the admiration of Iraqis, even those he disagreed with."

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Hurst is AP bureau chief in Iraq and has reported on the war since 2003.