US wants to replace Iraqi PM

[karlos]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/08/26/allawi.returns/index.html

Ayad Allawi said Sunday he will soon return to Baghdad to "reverse the course in Iraq." Speaking from Amman, Jordan, Allawi told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer," that al-Maliki leads a government loyal to Iran and Shiite interests.

Allawi accused the prime minister of "supporting militias to take the rule of law in their hands. I would play my role in Iraq in whatever capacity is required to change Iraq into an unsectarian country, to a peaceful country, to a democratic country,"

However, Allawi's ties to a powerful Washington-based GOP lobbying firm raised eyebrows just as President Bush has reaffirmed his support for al-Maliki.
"Prime Minister al-Maliki's a good guy -- good man with a difficult job and I support him," Bush said. "And it's not up to the politicians in Washington, D.C., to say whether he will remain in his position."

Allawi has hired Barbour Griffith & Rogers, a GOP lobbying firm that employs two of Bush's former foreign policy aides: Robert Blackwill served as Bush's envoy to Iraq and helped form Allawi's interim government in 2004, and Philip Zelikow formerly served as counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

So it looks like they are trying to undermine the current prime minister while grooming his replacement.