'A Sense of Conspiracy'.(Hoshyar Zebari, Iraqi foreign minister)(Interview)

Byline: Melinda Liu and Larry Kaplow

Baghdad was already feeling the heat of an increase in suicide blasts and roadside bombs, mortar attacks on the Green Zone, and U.S. pressure to meet its "benchmarks" of progress by September. Amid all this, rumors abound in Baghdad of coup plots, which Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has fueled by accusing political rivals--aides say he means former P.M. Ayad Allawi--of "conspiring"

against the government with the help of "foreign intelligence." (Allawi has denied any connection to a coup plot.) Few in Maliki's government see more of the internal challenges that the prime minister faces than Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd who has managed to retain his post since being appointed to the interim government in June 2004. NEWSWEEK's Melinda Liu and Larry Kaplow spoke to Zebari. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Washington urgently wants to see progress. What is the tone of communications between senior U.S. officials and Maliki?

ZEBARI: The message from President Bush and the U.S. government is very clear and consistent. They urge and encourage us to move faster. The whole idea of the surge is really to buy time [for political progress].

In the U.S. election, Iraq is the dominant issue. All the Americans we talk to say, "We stand by you and want to help you to succeed. We've invested a lot of blood and treasure. There's a lot at stake here. We're not cutting and running, but it's your government. Some things we cannot do. So you do it."

What do you think Gen. David Petraeus will say when he reports to Congress in September on the results of the "surge"?