Corridors of Power: Khalilzad Wants Out, Al-Hakim Comes to Washington

Editor's Note: "Corridors of Power" is a new weekly column written for World Politics Review by veteran foreign affairs correspondent Roland Flamini. Each week, Flamini will report news items drawn from his extensive travels and contacts with diplomats and foreign policy officials from governments around the world.

White House security adviser Stephen J.Hadley's suggestion in the leaked Iraq memo that Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad should be encouraged "to move into the background and let (Prime Minister) Nouri al-Maliki take more credit for positive developments" must have been good news for the Afghan-born American diplomat. What seems at first like a mild slap on the wrist for hogging the limelight is likely to improve his chances of getting the job his friends say he wants -- U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, where John Bolton's temporary appointment is nearing expiration with zero prospect of renewal by a Democrat-dominated congress.

Pre-memo, the view in Washington was that Khalilzad was needed where he was, and it was not in President Bush's interest to rock the boat when it comes to the U.S. leadership in Baghdad. But Khalilzad is not the type to sit meekly in the background; and if the American diplomatic effort in Iraq is to lower its profile his sharp political instincts may be more useful in New York.

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