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"The administration is right to reverse itself and engage Iran and Syria on Iraq," Biden said |
CAIRO — American analysts and Democratic Senators have welcomed a long-overdue change of the Bush administration's opposition to talks with Iran and Syria to stem the bloody violence plaguing Iraq, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, February 28.
"The administration is right to reverse itself and engage Iran and Syria on Iraq," Sen. Joseph R. Biden, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.
"Right now they're a big part of the problem, but they have an interest in becoming part of the solution to prevent chaos in Iraq."
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, February 27, that the US, Iran, Syria and other countries will attend a pair of regional conference in Iraq.
The first meeting, at the ambassadorial level, will be held next month and focus on ending sectarian violence and foreign support for rival militia.
"This initial meeting will be followed, perhaps as early as the first half of April, by a ministerial level meeting with the same invitees, plus the G8," Rice added.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack declined to rule out possible discussion between Rice and her Iranian and Syrian counterparts.
"I'm not going to exclude any particular interaction at this point . . . on issues that are important to us, but the focus will be on Iraq," he said.
"Security is clearly an important issue for the Iraqis. It's going to be at the top of the agenda."
A much-anticipated report by the bipartisan Iraqi Study Group has recommended talks with both Iran and Syria to break the bloody cycle of violence in Iraq but the Bush administration rejected the call.
The administration accuses Iran of training and arming militias blamed for the raging sectarian violence in the war-torn country.
It also accuses Damascus of allowing foreign fighters into Iraq and of destabilizing Lebanon.
Overdue
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"Better late than never," Panetta told the Post
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Analysts said that the tone and strategy of the Bush administration's regional diplomacy appeared to be shifting.
"We have not been meeting with the Iranians to discuss regional issues," said Jon Alterman, a Middle East expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"This is very clearly an effort to bring the Iranians and the Syrians into a regional security discussion."
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also supports talks with the arch foes.
"It's so important that we understand the war will be won diplomatically, not militarily," he said.
"They should have happened some time ago."
Leon E. Panetta, a one-time White House chief of staff who served on the Iraq Study Group, agreed.
"Better late than never," he told the Washington Post.
Panetta said that the policy shift is "an important step in trying to bring stability to Iraq."
Four years after the 2003 US invasion, Iraq has been gripped by a bloody sectarian violence, with more than a hundred people being killed on a daily basis.
Almost 34,000 civilians died last year as the raging violence reached new heights, above all in Baghdad, according to the latest death count published by the Iraqi government.
Panetta said that a recent nuclear deal with North Korea and US renewed efforts to revive Palestinian-Israeli peace talks showed that the administration "is finally recognizing that part of its arsenal is strong diplomacy."
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