BAGHDAD, Iraq - Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki said in remarks published on Tuesday that he hopes sectarian militias will be dissolved and the Sunni insurgency ended within six months. Al Maliki made the optimistic prediction in an interview with the Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat as US and Iraqi forces prepare for a major security crackdown in Baghdad - the third attempt within a year to curb sectarian violence.“The militias have to end and be transferred to political organizations and any competition with the state in its attempt to bring about security must end,” said Al Maliki, who owes his job in part to the backing of radical Shia cleric Muqtada Al Sadr, leader of the biggest Shia militia, the Mahdi Army.
Asked how long it will take to dissolve militias, Al Maliki said “I don’t want to tie myself to deadlines but my intention is to end this matter. I have two matters that I want to finish as soon as possible and they are terrorism and militias from one side and then national reconciliation and outlaws.”
“I have hope that those two matters will be done in less than six months since militias have started complying and the government is imposing itself. Our success in ending the militias will lead to a success in national reconciliation,” Al Maliki said.
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He said he understood that the United States would not continue its support indefinitely unless the government showed progress in addressing sectarian and other problems.