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Analysis: And Now a Diplomatic Surge

Council on Foreign Relations

August 1, 2007
Prepared by: Eben Kaplan

With U.S. forces in Iraq having recently reached “surge” levels, President Bush has intensified a diplomatic offensive, dispatching Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to visit U.S. allies (LAT) in the region. The trip has several aims: ensuring better cooperation on Iraq, advancing Bush’s calls for Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy, and expressing commitment to regional security. Tamara Cofman Wittes, a Mideast expert at the Brookings Institution, tells CFR.org’s Bernard Gwertzman the central message of the visit is: “The United States is going to remain the core guarantor of security and stability in the Gulf.”

The two Bush cabinet members arrived bearing incentives (RFE/RL), including an estimated $63 billion worth of arms deals for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel. In an official statement, Rice explained the arms packages, which still require congressional approval, should help counter the “negative influences of al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran.” A Times of London editorial says containing Iran is a shared interest of the United States and its allies in the Gulf region. National security analyst William M. Arkin suggests in his Washington Post blog that Rice and Gates could be paving the way for a new U.S. military alliance in the Middle East that would ensure a U.S. military presence even after withdrawal from Iraq.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2007 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.