A month after President Bush slammed
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a
Democrat, for traveling to Damascus in
early April to meet President Bashar
al-Assad, the U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice met on Thursday with
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moualem
on the sidelines of an international
conference held in Egypt to end four
years of violence in war-torn Iraq.
The ice-breaking meeting, the first
between the U.S. and Syria in decades,
followed rare praise from the U.S.
army that Damascus reduced "the
flow of foreign fighters" into
Iraq. The high-profile diplomatic
encounter indicated that international
efforts to stabilize Iraq by engaging
its neighbors are finally working.
U.S. officials stressed that only
Iraq’s security - rather than
broader relations - were discussed in
a "professional and
businesslike" meeting between
Rice and Moualem, marking a shift in
President Bush’s once resolute
opposition to high-level contacts with
Syria or Iran.
The Iraq summit also gave British
Foreign Minister Margaret Beckett the
chance for her first meeting with her
Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki
since last month's row over Iran’s
arrest of 15 British sailors and
marines.
"There is every reason why there
has to be a constructive
relationship," Beckett said after
the talks.
Beckett’s comments comply with the
EU’s approach towards Iran that
reflects a continued EU wish to find a
compromise over Tehran’s nuclear
program and avoid confrontation with a
major oil supplier and trade partner.
The EU foreign policy chief Javier
Solana recently urged the United
States to open direct negotiations
with Tehran, stressing that Iranian
officials are ready for unconditional
talks.
The Iraq conference offered a great
opportunity for such high-level talks.
But these hopes were dashed as the
only meeting that took place was
between ambassadors, although Rice and
Mottaki had a brief exchange over
lunch yesterday.
Stressing that Baghdad is keen to
bring Rice and Mottaki together,
Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshiyar
Zibari said: “it was the ambassadors
and members of the [U.S. and Iranian]
delegations that met.”
U.S. officials attending the Iraq
conference said the Americans feel
that the right man for the first such
meeting in nearly 30 years was Ali
Larijani, Iran's national security
adviser, not Mottaki.
Another excuse Rice might use to avoid
meeting Mottaki is his strong
criticism of Washington’s policy in
Iraq.
Speaking at the Sharm al-Sheikh
conference, Mottaki blamed the U.S.
presence in the war-ravaged country
for sectarian violence. "The
continuation of, and increase in,
terrorist acts in Iraq originates from
the flawed approaches adopted by the
foreign troops. Thus, in our view, the
continuation of occupation lies at the
origin of the crisis," he said.
"The United States must accept
the responsibilities arising from the
occupation of Iraq, and should not
finger point or put the blame on
others.”
Rice’s reluctance to meet Mottaki,
whether to discuss Iraq’s security
or attempt to resolve the nuclear
standoff, sends confusing messages to
the Iranians, analysts say.
After all, it was Rice herself who
urged Tehran to send an envoy to
attend the Iraq conference. “It
would be a missed opportunity for
Iran” if it didn't show up at the
Sharm al-Sheikh summit, the U.S.
Secretary of State said late last
month.
