During meetings with Arab leaders in the Gulf on Sunday, George W Bush touted as a major achievement the adoption by the Iraqi parliament of a law amending the de-Baathification law imposed in May 2003 by the US occupation regime.

This measure banned the Baath party, which ruled Iraq from 1968-2003, and excluded its members from public office, thereby shutting down the civil service. The adoption of the law, which has been discussed over the past two years, coincided with Bush’s first presidential tour of the region during which he is trying to persuade Arab leaders to support the US project in Iraq, Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, and Washington's drive to isolate and contain Iran. However, most Arab rulers and pundits are unlikely to be swayed by the Iraqi parliament’s action.  
    
The law was passed on Saturday by as few as 72 of a quorum of 143 members of the 275 seat Iraqi national assembly. The law provides for reinstatement of low level Baathists who held posts outside the interior, finance, defence and foreign ministries. While only 3,500 former party members would be banned from serving in the government, 13,000-31,000 former Baathists might be allowed to return to their jobs, after being vetted by a new committee set to replace the old De-Baathification Commission, and cleared by the judiciary of crimes.

However, 27,000 former Baathists currently employed in “security” jobs could be forcibly retired and pensioned. Few ex-Baathists are expected to apply to return to their jobs because they fear that they could be targeted by Shia militia groups if they are investigated by a Shia-dominated committee or their records are exposed to public scrutiny. 

Shia legislators praised the legislation because sweeping bans against ex-Baathists will remain in force. “They will not be allowed to get important posts or take part in the political process,” stated Bahaa al-Araji, a leader of the bloc loyal to radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, which vehemently opposed the original draft of the bill when it was presented last November. 

Deputies who opposed the law and boycotted voting were from the National Dialogue Front, the secular Iraqi National List headed by former Premier Iyad Allawi, an ex-Baathist, and from two of the three parties which comprise the Sunni National Accord Front. Politicians in these groupings could be barred from public life under the new law.  Saleh al-Mutlaq, head of the National Dialogue Front, said US officials are portraying adoption of the law as proof that Washington’s 18 benchmarks are being achieved by the Shia fundamentalist, Kurdish-backed government of Nuri al-Maliki.  “They want to give the impression they’re working on reconcilation. They’re bluffing themselves and the Americans by telling others they’ve done something.”

The US benchmarks also include adoption of legislation on the distribution of revenues from Iraqi oil sales, authorising provincial elections and providing for a referendum to decide the future of the oil city of Kirkuk, which the Kurds seek to annex to their autonomous region.

Little progress has been made on these highly sensitive issues.