)
Confusion persists over whether or not the US military will continue with its plan to build barriers around a Sunni enclave in Baghdad, though Ambassador Ryan Crocker said Monday, "Obviously we will respect the wishes of the government and the prime minister," regarding the Adhamiya wall.
Nuri al-Maliki demanded on Sunday that construction of the wall be halted. "I oppose the building of the walls, and the construction will stop," he said during a visit to Egypt yesterday, adding, "There are other methods to protect neighborhoods."
However, Iraq's chief military spokesman, Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, seemed to contradict Maliki's position in a press conference Monday morning.
"We will continue to construct the security barriers in the Adamiyah neighborhood. This is a technical issue,'' Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said. "Setting up barriers is one thing and building barriers is another. These are moveable barriers that can be removed.''
Moussawi blamed the media for exaggerating the controversy, saying, "We expected this reaction by some weak-minded people,'' he said.
Crocker also defended the plan to enclose residential areas, saying its intent was "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."
However, Crocker also added that "It is in no one's intention or thinking that this is going to be a permanent state of affairs."
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman, implied today that a miscommunication may have led to Maliki's harsh response to the plan, saying "Discussions on a local level may not have been conveyed to the highest levels of the Iraqi government."
"Whether the prime minister saw this plan or not, I don't know. With him in Cairo, it complicates things,'' Garver said.
