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WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama Tuesday pressed Iraqi leaders to bring "a sense of urgency" to forming their new government amid political deadlock nearly six months after elections.
"Tonight, I encourage Iraq's leaders to move forward with a sense of urgency to form an inclusive government that is just, representative, and accountable to the Iraqi people," he said in a rare televised address from his Oval Office.
"And when that government is in place, there should be no doubt: The Iraqi people will have a strong partner in the United States. Our combat mission is ending, but our commitment to Iraq's future is not," he said.
Obama, formally announcing the end of US combat operations in Iraq seven and a half years after the March 2003 invasion to oust the late dictator Saddam Hussein, said the country must build on its "credible" March 7 legislative elections that drew a "strong turnout."
But Iraq's main parties in mid-August broke off coalition talks aimed at forging a government, amid widespread public discontent with the war-torn country's political elite.
Analysts have predicted Iraq will not have a new administration in place before the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in mid-September.
-AFP/wk
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