<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/world/middleeast/17rice.html> January 17, 2007 Gulf Allies Support Goals of New U.S. Strategy in Iraq By THOM SHANKER
KUWAIT, Jan. 16 — America's Persian Gulf allies on Tuesday endorsed the goals of President Bush's new Iraq strategy. But even one of Washington's staunchest partners in the region, Saudi Arabia, indicated deep concerns about whether the Shiite-led government in Baghdad had the capacity and will to halt sectarian violence and protect Sunni Arabs.
The six foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council, along with those of Egypt and Jordan and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, issued a statement that "welcomed the commitment" of the United States to stabilizing Iraq, but made no commitments to help stabilize or rebuild the country.
The Bush administration's blunt warnings to Iran in recent days echoed throughout the session, and the official communiqué broadly criticized any nation that interfered in the internal affairs of Iraq — a clear reference to Iran, although the official document never mentioned it by name.
Kuwait was the final stop of a diplomatic swing by Ms. Rice across the Middle East to explain the president's new military, diplomatic and economic initiatives for Iraq, and to build support among the region's Arab states, most of which have majority Sunni populations. The meeting in Kuwait was held 16 years to the day after a United States-led coalition began an offensive to drive the Iraqi Army out of Kuwait.
But it was the threat of rising sectarian violence following a second American-led invasion that was the topic of Tuesday's meeting.
"Nine foreign ministers are meeting in Kuwait today to precisely prevent Iraq from sliding into civil war, and that speaks volumes," said Sheik Muhammad al-Sabah al-Salim al-Sabah, the foreign minister of Kuwait.
"The participants welcomed the commitment by the United States as stated in President Bush's recent speech to defend the security of the gulf, the territorial integrity of Iraq and to ensure a successful, fair and inclusive political process that engages all Iraqi communities and guarantees the stability of the country," said the communiqué, in language that the Bush administration could cite to prove broad regional support for its initiatives.
But earlier on Tuesday, Prince Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, issued a more guarded and carefully worded endorsement of the new Bush strategy.
"We agree fully with the goals set by the new strategy, which in our view are the goals that — if implemented — would solve the problems that face Iraq," he said.
Prince Saud said he could not comment on specifics of the plan, which Bush administration officials acknowledge relies heavily on the actions of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq, a Shiite political leader who has shown a reluctance to crack down on violent Shiite militias. Yet he also declined to be drawn into a discussion of possible Saudi action to protect Sunni Arabs in Iraq in the event of a full-blown sectarian civil war.
"Why speculate on such dire consequences?" he said, urging unity among Iraq's Shiites, Sunnis, Turkmen and Kurds. "Why not speculate on the positive side? I cannot for the life of me concede that a country like that would commit suicide given the good will and the desire of all to help in this."
Ms. Rice acknowledged the legitimacy of those worries within powerful Sunni-majority states, where the Baghdad government has remained either unwilling or unable to stop Shiite death squads from murdering Sunnis, in what appeared to be a campaign of ethnic killings.
"There are concerns about whether the Maliki government is prepared to take an evenhanded, nonsectarian path," Ms. Rice said. "After all the years of deep grievance in the region, within Iraq, it's not surprising that that's the case."
But Ms. Rice stressed that each of the Middle Eastern leaders with whom she has met "wants to give this a chance," adding, "That's the position of people in the region, and there is, in fact, a burden on the Iraqi government to perform."
The communiqué contained no specific reference to Mr. Bush's order for adding more than 20,000 troops to the Iraq mission. But Sheik Muhammad, the Kuwaiti foreign minister, said, "We expressed our desire to see the president's plan to reinforce the American military presence in Baghdad as a vehicle and a venue to stabilize Baghdad and to prevent Iraq from sliding into ugly war, the civil war."
The statement never challenged the Maliki government directly, but it used standard diplomatic code to make the point: it called for disarming militias and ending sectarian violence. "The ministers expressed the hope that the Iraqi government will actively engage all components of the Iraqi people in a real political process and act in a manner that ensures inclusiveness and paves the way for the success of national reconciliation," it said.
Asked about regional worries over Iran, Sheik Muhammad said the other ministers had agreed to a "call for all countries to refrain from interfering in Iraqi internal affairs." He added, "This is something that we are all concerned about." -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>