SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, 1 August 2007 — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Arab leaders in Egypt yesterday, extracting renewed promises of help in Iraq and reaffirming Washington’s commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Rice, accompanied by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, met with foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf Cooperation Council states at the start of a regional tour aimed at countering Iran’s growing influence, notably in Iraq.
“We discussed how to support a unified Iraq where all Iraqis can live in peace and security,” Rice told journalists after the meeting that included top diplomats from GCC states Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
With some states accused of allowing Sunni militants into Iraq to fight US forces and Iran accused of equipping Iraqi Shiite militias doing the same, the parties called in a joint statement for “an end to all interference in Iraq.” The statement called for the prevention of “the transit of terrorists to Iraq” and an end to the “supply of arms and training to the militia and extra-governmental groups” in the war-torn country.
Rice warned that if unnamed “determined enemies” were successful “then this whole region is going to be chaotic,” while Gates sought to allay what he said were regional fears of a precipitous US withdrawal from Iraq. “There is clearly a concern...that the US would somehow withdraw from Iraq, or in some way that is destabilizing to the entire region,” Gates said at a press conference with Rice.
But, he added, even those at home calling for US troops to quit Iraq were increasingly aware “of the need to take into account the consequences if we make a change in our policy and the dangers inherent in doing it unwisely.”
And amid renewed impetus to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Rice and the Arab foreign ministers reiterated their commitment to a two-state solution, including an end to Israel’s occupation of Arab lands captured in 1967.
Rice also said a number of initiatives, including an Arab League peace plan, needed to be pulled together ahead of a Mideast peace conference called for by US President George W. Bush and tentatively slated for September.
“We really don’t want to have a meeting for the sake of having a meeting,” Rice said. However, Rice and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit sought to play down Monday’s announcement of a multibillion-dollar military aid bonanza for Washington’s friends in the region, which Iran is accused of “destabilizing.”
Meanwhile, Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, who arrived here on Monday, discussed with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak the current developments in the Arab and Islamic world especially the Palestinian issue and the current situation in Iraq, SPA reported yesterday.
