A senior Iraqi official cautioned Thursday against expecting «magical solutions» from the upcoming reports to Congress on military and political progress in Iraq and acknowledged the Iraqis are still not ready to defend the country on their own, according to The Associated Press. Iraq's ongoing turmoil, including this week's bloody clashes between rival Shiite militias in Karbala, has drawn new attention to the security crisis only days before key reports to the U.S. Congress measuring Iraq's progress since the arrival of 30,000 additional American troops. The reports, including those by U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and the top U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus, are expected to point to some limited success in curbing violence but little progress toward political power-sharing agreements among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. During a press conference, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari insisted that Iraq has been making some headway in resolving political differences, despite defections by the main Sunni Arab bloc and a hardline Shiite faction. «The whole world is waiting anxiously to see what this report will indicate,» Zebari said. «I personally believe that this report would not provide any magical solutions or provide any instant answers to the difficulties and challenges we are going through.» Zebari, a Kurd, cited an agreement reached last weekend by the country's five leading political leaders, who pledged to work for parliamentary approval of landmark legislation demanded by Washington. «I am hopeful that come September 11 or 12 you will see more political progress,» Zebari said without elaborating. In the meantime, Iraqis need help from U.S. and other international forces because the capabilities of Iraqi security forces «are not up to what is desired.» Those weaknesses came into sharp focus this week when fighting broke out between rival militias during a major Shiite religious festival in Karbala, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad.
