USA Turkish Times - US, Britain to attend Iraq neighbors meeting

US, Britain to attend Iraq neighbors meeting

Iraq's foreign minister said on Tuesday that officials from regional states including Iran and Syria will join U.S. and British envoys at a meeting in Baghdad next month to seek ways to stabilize Iraq. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, speaking to the Reuters news agency, stressed that the mid-March meeting would be a chance for Western and regional powers to try to bridge some of their differences over Iraq.

"Our hope is that this will be an ice-breaking attempt for maybe holding other meetings in the future," he said. "We want Iraq, instead of being a divisive issue, to be a unifying issue."

Diplomatic sources said that meeting, tentatively planned for the first half of March, will be at the ambassadorial level. The American representative will be Zalmay Khalilzad, the current U.S. ambassador to Iraq, or his successor, Ryan Crocker. Khalilzad has long favored direct meetings with Iran. Diplomatic sources stated that if the initial meeting goes well, a second meeting at the foreign minister level is planned for April.

Turkish diplomatic sources told The New Anatolian yesterday that Ankara characterized the move as a new step which will help accelerate talks aiming to stabilize Iraq. Saying that this is a new process in the view of Turkish diplomats, sources underlined that Ankara supports the stabilization of the Iraq.

Saying that Turkey has already announced that it will attend the Iraq neighbors meeting, sources said problems such as security and technical problems have held up the gathering. Diplomatic sources said that Ankara welcomes the new process which aims to bring stability to the region.

In December, the bipartisan U.S. Iraq Study Group issued a report on the Iraq war in which it recommended the United States hold direct talks with Damascus and Tehran to persuade them to help stem the violence in Iraq.

U.S. President George W. Bush reacted coolly to that proposal. Bush has not ruled out a regional conference to help Iraq, involving Iran and Syria, but the White House has indicated Iraq would have to set it up.

Iraq had invited last month neighboring countries, including U.S. rivals Iran and Syria, to a meeting on security next month in Baghdad. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry official did not give a specific date for the meeting but said it was planned for March and would be the 10th held by Iraq's neighbors but the first in the Iraqi capital. The last such meeting was held last July in Iran.

The Iraqi government, meanwhile, said it would consider any attack against U.S. forces in this country as an assault against Iraq, but also wants good relations with its big eastern neighbor, Iran, underscoring the delicate balance it faces in keeping the rivalry between the two countries from spilling over its borders.

"We would like to maintain good relations with Iran," chief Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told reporters. "Any attack against multinational forces, this is an act against the Iraq government. The Iraqi government would not allow any attack."

Al-Dabbagh's comments came amid rising tensions between the United States and Iran, following the arrest of five Iranians in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil and the Jan. 20 attack to the south in Karbala in which four U.S. soldiers were kidnapped and slain. A fifth was killed in the raid.

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said there was a "political and moral difference" between what the United States and the Iranians are doing in Iraq, reiterating allegations that Tehran has been supporting Shiite militias that have been blamed for much of the recent sectarian violence in Iraq.

The aim is to discuss ways Iraq's neighbors to halt bloodshed that threatens to tear Iraq apart.
Zebari said the meeting would involve deputy foreign ministers or senior officials from Iraq's neighbors.

Ambassadors from the five permanent members of the United Nations who are based in Baghdad have confirmed they will take part, he said. "Everybody agreed to attend after tough negotiations," Zebari said.

A U.S. embassy spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. A British embassy spokeswoman said the British would attend the meeting but it was unclear at what level.

Other participants would come from the United Nations and the Arab League, Zebari said.
Asked if U.S. officials could end up having separate meetings with the Iranians and Syrians, Zebari said: "We want to put them all in the one hall first, then explore the other possibilities."

Washington accuses Iran of fanning violence in Iraq. In recent weeks, U.S. military officials in Baghdad have presented what they said was evidence that Iranian-manufactured weapons were being smuggled into Iraq.

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