ABU DHABI, 3 August 2007 — Washington underestimated the difficulty of getting Iraq’s Sunnis and Shiites to agree on key national reconciliation measures, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates admitted here yesterday.
Gates was in the United Arab Emirates yesterday to discuss security ties on the final leg of a Middle East tour focused on Iraq and efforts to counter Iran’s influence.
Gates held talks with the Abu Dhabi, Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed ibn Zayed Al-Nahayan, who is also deputy commander in chief of the UAE armed forces.
The pair “exchanged views about a number of important matters that jointly concern them regarding fostering security and stability in the region,” the official WAM news agency said, without elaborating.
Gates arrived in the UAE capital from Kuwait, following visits to Saudi Arabia and Egypt where he was accompanied by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was wrapping up her trip yesterday in the Palestinian territories.
At the end of a regional tour, Gates called the withdrawal of the main Sunni bloc from the Baghdad government “discouraging.” Gates told reporters as he flew back to Washington that gains made in security in western Iraq’s Anbar province and at the local level were cause for optimism, but he also acknowledged they were offset by divisions at the top.
“In some ways we probably all underestimated the depth of mistrust and how difficult it would be for these guys to come together on legislation, which let’s face it is not some kind of secondary thing,” he said.
“The kinds of legislation they’re talking about will establish the framework of Iraq for the future, so it’s almost like our constitutional convention,” Gates said. “And the difficulty in coming to grips with those we may all have underestimated six or eight months ago,” he said.
All six ministers from Iraq’s largest Sunni bloc tendered their resignation from Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s coalition government on Wednesday following a monthlong spat. The decision by the National Concord Front effectively ends any claim by the Shiite-dominated coalition to be a government of national unity, and strikes another blow at Iraq’s already faltering program of national reconciliation.
Gates said the developments on the political side “are somewhat discouraging at the national level. And clearly the withdrawal of the Sunnis from the government is discouraging.
“My hope is it can all be patched back together,” he said. But Gates said he was “optimistic on the security side because of what I see in Al-Anbar, and what we’re seeing in some of the other provinces where we’re getting cooperation.” He added: “I think the key is, not only establishing the security, but being able to hold on to those areas and for Iraqi army and police to be able to provide the continuity of that security over time.
“It’s under that umbrella I think progress will be made at a national level.” He said political setbacks would have to be weighed against improvements in security when the top commander in Iraq and the US ambassador report to Congress in mid-September.
Gates urged US partners in the Middle East yesterday to put pressure on Iran to end its nuclear program, warning there’s “not really room for bystanders here.”
“Iran is actively engaged right now in activities that are contrary to the interests of most of the countries, virtually all of the countries that we just visited as well as the United States, as well as Iraq,” he said. “We just can’t wait years for them to try to change their policies,” he said.
“The more countries in the world that cooperate in the UN sanctions, and in bringing pressures to bear on this government, that its policies are antithetical to the interests of all of its neighbors, the better off we’ll be,” Gates said.
“That was basically our message. So it’s really not so much containment, as we’ll need to work together,” he said. “There is not really room for bystanders here.” Asked the reaction of the leaders he met, Gates said: “Without being country specific, in terms of concern with Iran, there was no difference of opinion.”
