WASHINGTON, April 9: Washington will wait until Iraqis establish a new government before opening talks with Tehran on Iran’s role in Iraq, US Ambassador to Baghdad Zalmay Khalilzad said on Sunday. “We do not want to give the impression that the United States is sitting with Iran to decide about the Iraqi government. The Iraqis will decide that,” Khalilzad told the Fox News on Sunday television programme.

“So we have deferred that meeting until after the formation of the Iraqi government,” he said.

Meanwhile, in a separate interview with CNN’s “Late Edition” programme, Khalilzad acknowledged the dangerous upswing in sectarian violence in Iraq in recent weeks, but urged patience as Iraqi political groups continued to struggle to choose a new prime minister nearly four months after general elections.

“The Iraqi people would like to have a government of national unity, an effective government as soon as possible and their patience is running out,” he said.

Khalilzad, who has been at the centre of negotiations between Iraqi leaders over the new government, rejected calls by Democratic US Senator John Kerry to set a deadline of May 15 for them to reach an accord or see US troops pulled from the country.

“I believe that they’re on the right track. They’re having some difficulties. We are pressing them, but eventually they will get it right, and it’s very important that we stay with them,” he said.

“I don’t believe giving them a deadline for withdrawal of troops,” said Khalilzad.

“There’s no question ... that the terrorists, the Zarqawi group, would like to provoke a civil war. And in the aftermath of the attack on Samarra shrine, there has been increased sectarian tensions and conflicts.

“But I believe that the Iraqi leaders, such as Ayatollah Sistani and other leaders from Sunni community or others, do not want a civil war ... Also, government institutions are holding together. They have not fragmented. And as I said before, all Iraqi leaders, across ethnic and sectarian lines, are saying that they want to work together, they want to have a government of national unity.

“So I do not believe that based on what I had described, I would agree to call Iraq in a state of civil war,” he said.—AFP