ARAB-US RELATIONS - June 17 - US Frustrated By Lack Of Iraqi Reconciliation.

The top US commander in Iraq General David Petraeus warns the Iraqi government has not made any substantial progress on political reconciliation since the US military surge began. The US surge was intended to provide the Iraqi government with breathing space to implement political reforms aimed at reducing tensions between Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish groups. But US officials and military officers have become increasingly frustrated with the inability of the government to make progress. General David Petraeus said there had not been any "real substantial achievements" in terms of political reform and progress. His comments to Fox News came as the US military launched a major offensive against insurgents and al-Qaeda members in the Baghdad area. The new operation started following the arrival of the final combat brigade making up the military surge. The US has expanded its presence in Baghdad by about 30,000 soldiers, bringing the total number of troops in Iraq to about 160,000. "They are enabling us now to launch operations into sanctuaries, areas in which we have had very little coalition force presence, other than raids, in recent years", said Gen Petraeus. "These are areas where al-Qaeda has established car bomb factories and other bases from which they have issued forth and then moved into Baghdad to attack targets". Gen Petraeus said US forces would push into the so-called Baghdad belts and Diyala province, which have seen increased violence as insurgents have been pushed out of Anbar province by US forces with the co-operation of Sunni tribes. In a surprise visit to Baghdad this June 16, US defence secretary Robert Gates, warned Nouri al-Maliki, Iraqi PM, that his government needed to show progress by September when Gen Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador to Baghdad, report to the US Congress. Colin Powell, former secretary of state under Bush, last week said Iraq had descended into civil war, and warned that without significant progress by the Iraqi security forces, the surge would only "put a heavier lid on a boiling pot of civil war stew". Congress has also asked retired General James Jones to lead a team to Iraq this summer to provide an independent assessment of the Iraqi security forces. The increased pressure on Maliki comes as the White House becomes concerned that senior Republicans will turn against the war if progress is not obvious by September. Most polls show that about two-thirds of Americans are now unhappy with the way Bush is handling Iraq. Concerns about violence heightened last week after the Golden Mosque in Samarra was attacked for a second time. The first bombing of the Shi'ite mosque in February last year was widely credited with sparking a round of sectarian reprisals. But unrest this time appears to have been muted, even after the government lifted a four-day curfew.