23 April 2007
Rice Looks Forward to Neighbors Conference on Iraq
Tells Financial Times she wants to gauge attitudes toward stability
By Jim Fisher-Thompson
USINFO Staff Writer
Washington -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she looks forward to attending an international conference on Iraq in May to which Syria and Iran also have been invited, and in gauging participants' attitudes toward bringing stability to the region.
During an April 20 interview with the Financial Times, Rice said, "We'll have a chance to in a sense test the proposition that the neighbors have more to lose from an unstable Iraq than to gain from it. I think that's a good format in which to have that discussion."
The Iraqi government has invited a number of nations, including Syria and Iran, as well as international organizations like the European Union and the U.N. Security Council to attend the launch of the International Compact with Iraq and the Expanded Neighbors of Iraq ministerial meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh. Rice and foreign ministers from 21 countries are scheduled to attend the May 3-4 conference, which will be hosted by the Egyptian government. (See related article.)
Rice also plans to hold several bilateral meetings while in Sharm el-Sheikh, where she intends to discuss ways to support Iraq in its economic reform efforts and to move forward with the stabilization of Iraq and the country's transition to full self-reliance, according to a State Department media note.
"We do not believe that Syria is doing what it should to help stabilize Iraq. We have talked with Syria. We have diplomatic relations with Syria," Rice said. "And it's not a matter of having a [diplomatic] allergy to talking to certain states." (See related article.)
With Syria "It's simply been a matter that we've talked and talked, and we've never been able to get anywhere" on many issues.
Iran is a different case, she said, because there has been no diplomatic relationship for 27 years for a variety of reasons. Rice said she hoped that the Iranians would realize that their own interests are not served well by instability in Iraq because that could create an unstable environment elsewhere in the region.
In Egypt, she said, "We'll have opportunity, I would hope, to discuss these issues."
A transcript of the secretary’s interview and the full text of the media note are available on the State Department Web site.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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