thedrifter
01-07-09, 08:16 AM
January 6, 2009
U.S. starts next phase with Iraq embassy
Giant compound cost $700 million
BY CHELSEA J. CARTER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The United States inaugurated its largest embassy ever Monday, a fortresslike compound in the heart of Baghdad's Green Zone -- and the most visible sign of what U.S. officials call a new chapter in relations with a more sovereign Iraq.
U.S. Marines raised the American flag over the adobe-colored buildings, which sit on a 104-acre site and have space for 1,000 employees -- more than 10 times the size of any other U.S. Embassy in the world. The price tag was $700 million.
"Iraq is in a new era and so is the Iraqi-U.S. relationship," Ambassador Ryan Crocker proclaimed.
In perhaps an unintended sign of the new relationship, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki did not attend Monday's ceremony because he was traveling in Iran, a country the United States has accused of aiding and arming Iraqi militants.
Explaining the opening of such a large embassy three years before the United States must finish withdrawing its 146,000 troops from Iraq, Crocker said that it is vital for the United States to remain involved in nonmilitary ways.
"I think we have seen a tremendous amount of progress," Crocker said before the ceremony, "but the development of this new Iraq is going to be a very long time in the making, and we need to be engaged here."
The inauguration of the embassy came just days after a security agreement between Iraq and the United States took effect, replacing a United Nations mandate that gave legal authority to the United States and other foreign troops to operate in Iraq.
Under the new security agreement, U.S. troops will no longer conduct unilateral operations and will act only in concert with Iraqi forces. They also must leave major Iraqi cities by June and the entire country by the end of 2011. Another accord mapped out the bilateral relations.
U.S. diplomats and military officials moved into the embassy on Thursday after vacating Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace, which they occupied when Baghdad was captured in April 2003. The palace will now seat the Iraqi government and al-Maliki's office.
Crocker said that since 2003 invasion, "perhaps no single week has been more important than this past week."
But as U.S. and Iraqi officials lauded progress in the country, Baghdad was rocked by a second day of violence that saw four car bombs explode in various parts of the city, killing four people and wounding 19.
On Sunday, a suicide bomber killed at least 38 people at a Shi'ite shrine just 4 miles north of the new embassy.
Ellie
U.S. starts next phase with Iraq embassy
Giant compound cost $700 million
BY CHELSEA J. CARTER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The United States inaugurated its largest embassy ever Monday, a fortresslike compound in the heart of Baghdad's Green Zone -- and the most visible sign of what U.S. officials call a new chapter in relations with a more sovereign Iraq.
U.S. Marines raised the American flag over the adobe-colored buildings, which sit on a 104-acre site and have space for 1,000 employees -- more than 10 times the size of any other U.S. Embassy in the world. The price tag was $700 million.
"Iraq is in a new era and so is the Iraqi-U.S. relationship," Ambassador Ryan Crocker proclaimed.
In perhaps an unintended sign of the new relationship, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki did not attend Monday's ceremony because he was traveling in Iran, a country the United States has accused of aiding and arming Iraqi militants.
Explaining the opening of such a large embassy three years before the United States must finish withdrawing its 146,000 troops from Iraq, Crocker said that it is vital for the United States to remain involved in nonmilitary ways.
"I think we have seen a tremendous amount of progress," Crocker said before the ceremony, "but the development of this new Iraq is going to be a very long time in the making, and we need to be engaged here."
The inauguration of the embassy came just days after a security agreement between Iraq and the United States took effect, replacing a United Nations mandate that gave legal authority to the United States and other foreign troops to operate in Iraq.
Under the new security agreement, U.S. troops will no longer conduct unilateral operations and will act only in concert with Iraqi forces. They also must leave major Iraqi cities by June and the entire country by the end of 2011. Another accord mapped out the bilateral relations.
U.S. diplomats and military officials moved into the embassy on Thursday after vacating Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace, which they occupied when Baghdad was captured in April 2003. The palace will now seat the Iraqi government and al-Maliki's office.
Crocker said that since 2003 invasion, "perhaps no single week has been more important than this past week."
But as U.S. and Iraqi officials lauded progress in the country, Baghdad was rocked by a second day of violence that saw four car bombs explode in various parts of the city, killing four people and wounding 19.
On Sunday, a suicide bomber killed at least 38 people at a Shi'ite shrine just 4 miles north of the new embassy.
Ellie