Sheikh Ghazi Mashal Ajil Al-Yawar, president of Iraq's interim government, attended a private reception held at AU President Benjamin Ladner's residence June 10, marking the first visit of an Iraqi head of state to the United States since Iraq's monarchy period, according to Carole O'Leary, a School of International Service adjunct professor and scholar-in-residence at AU's Center for Global Peace.
Yawar also met with President Bush and other U.S. politicians.
"In my conversations with [Yawar], he felt good about his visit to the United States and the American officials seem to feel good about him," said professor Abdul Aziz Said, director of the Center for Global Peace and a close friend of Yawar. "President Bush spent some time with him, as well as from Congress ... both Democrats and Republicans."
However, Yawar was not Bush's first choice for Iraq's new leader. United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi selected Yawar after Bush's candidate, Adnan Pachachi, withdrew due to lack of support from majority Shiite politicians, The Washington Post reported. The Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led body ruling Iraq, will hand over authority to Yawar's interim government June 30, without a permanent constitution, which U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer previously assured would be in place before Iraqi sovereignty. Yawar's government experience is limited to his participation in the Iraqi Governing Council, which wrote a temporary constitution.
During his U.S. visit, Yawar also considered attending the international conference "Iraq: Power Sharing and its Discontents," hosted by the Center for Global Peace on June 11. However, he could not attend due to other public commitments.
Sayyed Mohammed Taha Hussein of the Hawza al-Ilmiya, the center for Shiite learning in Iraq, also considered attending the conference, but arrived that evening.
However, although Sayyed Hussein did not attend the conference, he did meet privately with AU Vice President of International Affairs Robert Pastor and O'Leary to discuss elections and democracy. The interim national government is to hold general elections next January, according to The Post.
Hussein also discussed and clarified the position of Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sustani, one of the heads of the Hawza al-Ilmiya and "the most influential leader of Iraq's Shiite majority ... with millions of followers," according to The Post.
"Sayyed Mohammed [Hussein] will share with the Hawza what he learned here," O'Leary said. "Dr. Pastor, myself [and] professor Said were so impressed with his openness, his genuineness and his knowledge base."
A major focus of the conference and private meetings between AU scholars and Iraqi leaders was the future of the Kurdistan minority in Iraq.
"The most important thing that came through is that Iraqis are perfectly cognizant that they have to organize ... a system for power-sharing in what is a very pluralistic society and that Iraq has two key ethno-linguistic groups - Arabs and Kurds - and this has to be recognized, and simply saying 'We're all Iraqis' won't cover it," O'Leary said. "The president of Iraq very much understands that issue."
O'Leary added that "you couldn't have picked a more timely topic" for the conference.
However, some attendees expressed a wish for broader discussion.
"Had there been more on Arab-Sunni and Arab-Shi'a [issues] we could have had a fuller discussion about all aspects of the constitution," said David L. Phillips of the Council on Foreign Relations, a non-partisan center for scholars, who spoke at the conference. "In the context of Iraqi Kurds ... it would have been useful to look into how to make [non-Kurdish Iraqis] living in the Kurdish region stakeholders in the future of the region."
However, others relayed satisfaction with the conference.
"I heard from a number of State Department [members] and American diplomats who said that this conference for them was far more useful than any think-tank conference they attended in Washington," Said said.
More than 250 people signed up to attend the conference, according to Amber Sommer, 23, an SIS graduate student and registration manager at the conference.
Attendees had to register for the conference in advance and the U.S. Secret Service provided security for the conference, according to O'Leary. Also, the location of the conference was changed from the Washington College of Law to the Ward Circle Building less than 48 hours prior to the conference for security reasons, according to Center for Global Peace worker Melinda Witter, a major figure in organizing the event.
Few students attended the conference, Sommer said.
"We did not specifically advertise to the AU student body. They were obviously allowed to come," Sommer said. "The purpose of the conference was really to bring up new ideas for policy-makers and others involved in Iraq right now."
Iraqis who attended the conference found it to be "balanced," O'Leary said.
Said said a diverse group of people involved in Iraq attended.
"They represented the various political trends, the various ethnic groups and the various religious trends in Iraq," Said said. "They are women and men who are committed to maintaining the territorial integrity of Iraq and they also are committed to a federal system in Iraq."
Said added that Yawar said Iraqis wants to form "their own Iraqi federalism."
"[Yawar] said his government ought to be given independence and he understood that security is a function of legitimacy," Said said. "[Yawar said] when Iraqis see that the government is legitimate they will become secure, and I believe that"
