Officials in Saudi Arabia, which shares borders with Iraq, watched the Fallujah and Ramadi violence with dismay. Some Saudi intelligence and foreign-policy officials said they believe Mr. Maliki has tried to hide the rising discontent among Anbar’s Sunni residents from U.S. officials to keep them from questioning his authority over the province.
“Maliki never admitted what’s going on in Anbar—he doesn’t want to show the Americans that he’s weak,” said Ahmed al-Ibrahim, a Saudi political analyst and an adviser to the Saudi government. Believing that it was critical to his political survival to show Iraq is that Americans supported him; Maliki “wanted to show that with him, Iraq is safe… He misled the Americans on so many occasions.”