Arab states should boost support for Iraq: Rice
Iraqi children play yesterday between wrecked cars in Baghdad's Sadr City struck by US missiles during fierce fighting with al-Mahdi army militia overnight. Loudspeakers at mosques in Baghdad's Shia bastion Sadr City blared out a call to arms soon after radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr warned of a new uprising of his militiamen. Photo: AFP
Iraq's Arab neighbours have few remaining excuses for withholding diplomatic and economic support for the US-backed government in Baghdad, now that daily life in Iraq is less deadly and the government has demonstrated resolve against militias and outliers, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday.
"At some point the Arab states need to take yes for an answer," Rice said en route to diplomatic meetings on Iraq's future. The role of Iran in Iraq and the wider Mideast is a subtext for the sessions in Bahrain and Kuwait, but Rice has ruled out holding a formal meeting with her Iranian counterpart.
The United States has tried for years to rally Arab support for a post-Saddam Iraq, both for the boost that regional acceptance would give the fledgling democracy and as a bulwark against spreading Iranian influence in Iraq and elsewhere.
Arab diplomats say they want to foster long-term stability in Iraq five years after a US-led invasion many of them opposed, but see little sign that the Shia-led Iraq government will fully include Sunni Muslims in political power and oil wealth. Arab states also privately note that with less than 10 months left in office, the Bush administration has declining leverage both over Arab states and the Baghdad government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
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