[A-List] Gulf Allies Support Goals of New U.S. Strategy in Iraq

["Yoshie Furuhashi" <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

The power elites of the Gulf states are the most useful and valuable
strategic allies and assets of Washington, more useful and valuable
than Tel Aviv.  Will the ordinary Arabs and Iranians ever recognize
that?  No, they are always more fixated on the "Zionist entity," when
they should be more focused on the problem of the Gulf royalist
entities, the regimes that really ought to "be wiped off the map" or
"vanish from the pages of history" (whichever the correct translation
of the famous remark of the President of Iran is).  -- Yoshie

<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/world/middleeast/17rice.html>
January 17, 2007
Gulf Allies Support Goals of New U.S. Strategy in Iraq
By THOM SHANKER

KUWAIT, Jan. 16 — America's Persian Gulf allies on Tuesday endorsed
the goals of President Bush's new Iraq strategy. But even one of
Washington's staunchest partners in the region, Saudi Arabia,
indicated deep concerns about whether the Shiite-led government in
Baghdad had the capacity and will to halt sectarian violence and
protect Sunni Arabs.

The six foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council, along with
those of Egypt and Jordan and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,
issued a statement that "welcomed the commitment" of the United States
to stabilizing Iraq, but made no commitments to help stabilize or
rebuild the country.

The Bush administration's blunt warnings to Iran in recent days echoed
throughout the session, and the official communiqué broadly criticized
any nation that interfered in the internal affairs of Iraq — a clear
reference to Iran, although the official document never mentioned it
by name.

Kuwait was the final stop of a diplomatic swing by Ms. Rice across the
Middle East to explain the president's new military, diplomatic and
economic initiatives for Iraq, and to build support among the region's
Arab states, most of which have majority Sunni populations. The
meeting in Kuwait was held 16 years to the day after a United
States-led coalition began an offensive to drive the Iraqi Army out of
Kuwait.

But it was the threat of rising sectarian violence following a second
American-led invasion that was the topic of Tuesday's meeting.

"Nine foreign ministers are meeting in Kuwait today to precisely
prevent Iraq from sliding into civil war, and that speaks volumes,"
said Sheik Muhammad al-Sabah al-Salim al-Sabah, the foreign minister
of Kuwait.

"The participants welcomed the commitment by the United States as
stated in President Bush's recent speech to defend the security of the
gulf, the territorial integrity of Iraq and to ensure a successful,
fair and inclusive political process that engages all Iraqi
communities and guarantees the stability of the country," said the
communiqué, in language that the Bush administration could cite to
prove broad regional support for its initiatives.

But earlier on Tuesday, Prince Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister of
Saudi Arabia, issued a more guarded and carefully worded endorsement
of the new Bush strategy.

"We agree fully with the goals set by the new strategy, which in our
view are the goals that — if implemented — would solve the problems
that face Iraq," he said.

Prince Saud said he could not comment on specifics of the plan, which
Bush administration officials acknowledge relies heavily on the
actions of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq, a Shiite
political leader who has shown a reluctance to crack down on violent
Shiite militias. Yet he also declined to be drawn into a discussion of
possible Saudi action to protect Sunni Arabs in Iraq in the event of a
full-blown sectarian civil war.

"Why speculate on such dire consequences?" he said, urging unity among
Iraq's Shiites, Sunnis, Turkmen and Kurds. "Why not speculate on the
positive side? I cannot for the life of me concede that a country like
that would commit suicide given the good will and the desire of all to
help in this."

Ms. Rice acknowledged the legitimacy of those worries within powerful
Sunni-majority states, where the Baghdad government has remained
either unwilling or unable to stop Shiite death squads from murdering
Sunnis, in what appeared to be a campaign of ethnic killings.

"There are concerns about whether the Maliki government is prepared to
take an evenhanded, nonsectarian path," Ms. Rice said. "After all the
years of deep grievance in the region, within Iraq, it's not
surprising that that's the case."

But Ms. Rice stressed that each of the Middle Eastern leaders with
whom she has met "wants to give this a chance," adding, "That's the
position of people in the region, and there is, in fact, a burden on
the Iraqi government to perform."

The communiqué contained no specific reference to Mr. Bush's order for
adding more than 20,000 troops to the Iraq mission. But Sheik
Muhammad, the Kuwaiti foreign minister, said, "We expressed our desire
to see the president's plan to reinforce the American military
presence in Baghdad as a vehicle and a venue to stabilize Baghdad and
to prevent Iraq from sliding into ugly war, the civil war."

The statement never challenged the Maliki government directly, but it
used standard diplomatic code to make the point: it called for
disarming militias and ending sectarian violence. "The ministers
expressed the hope that the Iraqi government will actively engage all
components of the Iraqi people in a real political process and act in
a manner that ensures inclusiveness and paves the way for the success
of national reconciliation," it said.

Asked about regional worries over Iran, Sheik Muhammad said the other
ministers had agreed to a "call for all countries to refrain from
interfering in Iraqi internal affairs." He added, "This is something
that we are all concerned about."

--
Yoshie
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