12 October 2006
Rice Calls on Iraqi Political Leaders To Overcome Differences
Says United States remains committed to helping Iraq, but cannot succeed alone
Washington – The United States remains committed to helping Iraq develop a stable, secure, democratic political system, according to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but the Iraqis must overcome their political differences and rein in sectarian violence.
“I think we have to be clear with the Iraqi leadership that the United States is committed to an outcome in Iraq that leaves Iraq stable and with a foundation for democracy,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle October 11. “But there is also no reason for Iraqis to just assume that that commitment doesn't require a commitment from them as well to overcome their political differences and to make progress on the things that they have to make progress on and disband their militias.”
She said the United States and coalition forces could help train Iraqi security forces and help address security problems, “but ultimately it's a political choice that they have to make that they're not going to let sectarianism overrun them.” (See related article.)
Rice told radio host Paul Smith October 12 that the Iraqi political system is making progress but faces tremendous challenges such as disbanding sectarian militias and developing an equitable hydrocarbons law to govern the use of Iraq’s natural resources “and that's what we're really pressing them to do now is to make those tough political decisions.”
Rice speculated that the violence would continue in Iraq for some time but said this should not prevent the Iraqi government from establishing a stable political system. She pointed to El Salvador and Colombia as examples of countries that have established stable, democratic governments in the face of tremendous civil unrest.
“But the question is for the Iraqis, how are they going to stabilize the core and how are they going to bring a kind of stability that cannot be undone by those violent people?” she said.
Rice said the United States and coalition troops are a force for stability but that ultimately they can provide only an atmosphere in which the various Iraqi parties work out their differences.
“I would rather say to the Iraqis our commitment is a commitment to get the job done, but we can't get the job done alone. It takes Iraqis to get the job done, too,” she said.
Rice dismissed the findings of a recent study from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health estimating that 655,000 Iraqi civilians have died over the past three years as a result of the conflict. She said the number is “outsized and just not credible.
“Now, it is true that too many Iraqis have died and they're dying at the hands of violent people who want to keep them from progressing to a modern, democratic and stable state,” she added. “And it is true that Iraqi political leaders have to take some difficult decisions in order to stop the violence. But I think that number is just not credible.”
Transcripts of Rice’s interviews are available on the State Department Web site:
• Interview with Paul Smith, and
• Interview With Debra Saunders of the San Francisco Chronicle.
For additional information, see Iraq Update.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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