Iraqi PM Orders Halt To Baghdad Wall

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq said Monday that the American military will "respect the wishes" of the Iraqi government regarding a barrier being built around a Sunni enclave in Baghdad, but he stopped short of saying construction would stop.

Ambassador Ryan Crocker made his comments a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he had asked that the building of the barrier in Azamiyah to stop after the project drew strong criticism from residents and Sunni leaders.

Meanwhile, violence was unrelenting on Monday as three suicide bombers in different parts of Iraq killed at least 27 people and wounded nearly 60, police and politicians said.

One of the attacks occurred in central Baghdad, when a bomber wearing an explosives belt blew himself up in an Iraqi restaurant less than 100 yards outside the heavily fortified Green Zone where Crocker was speaking. At least seven people were killed and 16 wounded, police said.

"Obviously we will respect the wishes of the government and the prime minister," Crocker said at his

But he defended the principle behind the Azamiyah barrier, saying it was aimed at protecting the community, not segregating it.

Crocker, who replaced Zalmay Khalilzad as ambassador, said "these months ahead are going to be critical" and he urged Iraqi legislators to pass key legislation that it is hoped will help bring minority Sunnis into the political process.

He said the security plan was important but its main purpose was to "buy time for what ultimately has to be a set of political understandings among Iraqis.

"Clearly the road is going to be a tough one," he said. "It's going to be very, very difficult, but I certainly believe success is possible otherwise I wouldn't be standing here."

As he spoke, hundreds of Iraqis took to the streets in the area in northern Baghdad to protest the construction of the wall in Azamiyah, which residents have complained would isolate them from the rest of the city.

Crocker said the intention of the barrier in Azamiyah as well as those constructed around markets in the capital is "to try and identify where the fault lines are and where avenues of attack lie and set up the barriers literally to prevent those attacks."

"The real imperative now with respect to the construction of barriers and other aspects ... is to bring down the level of violence," he said. "I think it's important as one looks at the measures available that one not lose sight of the threat."

"It is in no one's intention or thinking that this is going to be a permanent state of affairs," he added.

Al-Maliki said he has ordered a halt to the U.S. military construction of the barrier Sunday in Cairo, Egypt, as he began a regional tour to shore up support from mostly Sunni Arab nations for his Shiite-dominated government.

The U.S. military announced last week that it was building a three-mile long and 12-foot tall concrete wall in Azamiyah, a Sunni stronghold whose residents have often been the victims of retaliatory mortar attacks by Shiite militants following bombings usually blamed on Sunni insurgents.

U.S. and Iraqi officials defended plans for the barrier as an effort to protect the neighborhood, but residents and Sunni leaders complained it was a form of discrimination that would isolate the community.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver declined to comment on whether construction of the wall would stop, saying only that all security measures were constantly under discussion.

"We will coordinate with the Iraqi government and Iraqi commanders in order to establish effective, appropriate security measures," he said.

On another issue, Crocker said he hopes Iran and Syria will attend an international conference on Iraq scheduled for next month in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.

"Clearly we see this an opportunity for all of Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Syria, to come to together and work to chart a constructive engagement in support of the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people, and not the opposite," he said.

"We hope that both Iran and Syria will be there. We think their presence will provide some real opportunities, but obviously they are going to have to make their own decisions. for our part, we are going to be ready to engage in Sharm el-Sheik ... to do everything we can to make sure the resources of the international community and of the region are directed toward supporting Iraq, stabilizing Iraq and again not the opposite."

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