It's a date: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice eating a date during her meeting with foreign ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council in Manama yesterday. Rice met with foreign ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council as well as Egypt and Jordan to discuss Iraq. Picture: Reuters
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
THE United States met Sunni-led Arab allies yesterday to try to persuade them to back Iraq's Shi'ite leadership but failed to clinch any concrete commitments on debt relief or diplomatic presence.
Speaking after the meeting in Bahrain with counterparts from eight Arab countries and Iraq, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the talks covered relieving Iraq of billions of dollars in debt and sending ambassadors to the war-torn nation, but she did not report any decision on either score.
"I do believe it's a process which will move forward," she told reporters after the meeting with the Arab diplomats, which came one day after she made a surprise visit to Baghdad.
"A number of countries around the table talked about their desire to have permanent representatives" in Baghdad, she said.
"The terms of debt relief have long been known. It's just a matter of getting the negotiations done," Rice added.
Rice said she and the Arab ministers had agreed that Iraq should become a regular participant in the 6+2+1 meetings that have brought together the six oil-rich Gulf Arab states,plus Jordan, Egypt and the United States four times since January 2007.
"It is the view of the members of this group that Iraq should become a regular participant in its discussions ... I think that's a very good step forward for the reintegration of Iraq into regional affairs," she said at a joint news conference with Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad al-Khalifa. "We're now in the process of choosing our ambassador" to Baghdad, Sheikh Khaled said without giving a timeline.
The Bahrainis are "having discussions with Iraq on that matter," he added.
The United States has been pressing Arab allies to send ambassadors to Baghdad and help restructure Iraq's billions of dollars in debt, most of which dates back to the Saddam Hussein era.
Gulf states, especially Opec members Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, agreed several years ago to forgive a substantial part of Iraqi debt, estimated to total tens of billions of dollars. Iraq wants this to be translated into action.
Rice sought to persuade her counterparts from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as those of Egypt and Jordan, that Iraq's Shi'ite leadership was now fighting for national interests, rather than sectarian ones, after it took on Shi'ite militias allegedly armed by Iran.
"I think adjustments are going to have to be made in the way Iraq's neighbours think about it," Rice said in Baghdad on Sunday, claiming that the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad was now behaving in "a non-sectarian fashion".
Bahrain's foreign minister said the Arab diplomats had questions about "the ambiguity of the political picture" in Iraq, but received a "very good explanation" from Rice and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
Zebari himself had earlier hailed his participation in the meeting as a "qualitative leap" that would help Iraq.
AFP
Speaking after the meeting in Bahrain with counterparts from eight Arab countries and Iraq, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the talks covered relieving Iraq of billions of dollars in debt and sending ambassadors to the war-torn nation, but she did not report any decision on either score.
"I do believe it's a process which will move forward," she told reporters after the meeting with the Arab diplomats, which came one day after she made a surprise visit to Baghdad.
"A number of countries around the table talked about their desire to have permanent representatives" in Baghdad, she said.
"The terms of debt relief have long been known. It's just a matter of getting the negotiations done," Rice added.
Rice said she and the Arab ministers had agreed that Iraq should become a regular participant in the 6+2+1 meetings that have brought together the six oil-rich Gulf Arab states,plus Jordan, Egypt and the United States four times since January 2007.
"It is the view of the members of this group that Iraq should become a regular participant in its discussions ... I think that's a very good step forward for the reintegration of Iraq into regional affairs," she said at a joint news conference with Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad al-Khalifa. "We're now in the process of choosing our ambassador" to Baghdad, Sheikh Khaled said without giving a timeline.
The Bahrainis are "having discussions with Iraq on that matter," he added.
The United States has been pressing Arab allies to send ambassadors to Baghdad and help restructure Iraq's billions of dollars in debt, most of which dates back to the Saddam Hussein era.
Gulf states, especially Opec members Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, agreed several years ago to forgive a substantial part of Iraqi debt, estimated to total tens of billions of dollars. Iraq wants this to be translated into action.
Rice sought to persuade her counterparts from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as those of Egypt and Jordan, that Iraq's Shi'ite leadership was now fighting for national interests, rather than sectarian ones, after it took on Shi'ite militias allegedly armed by Iran.
"I think adjustments are going to have to be made in the way Iraq's neighbours think about it," Rice said in Baghdad on Sunday, claiming that the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad was now behaving in "a non-sectarian fashion".
Bahrain's foreign minister said the Arab diplomats had questions about "the ambiguity of the political picture" in Iraq, but received a "very good explanation" from Rice and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
Zebari himself had earlier hailed his participation in the meeting as a "qualitative leap" that would help Iraq.
AFP