Iraq signalled that world powers and neighbouring states, including Washington and its adversaries Iran and Syria, had agreed in Baghdad it was in everyone’s interest to stop sectarian violence spreading in the region.
But while United States President George Bush on Saturday ordered 4 400 more US troops to be sent to Iraq on top of a force build-up he has already authorised, Iran called for the withdrawal of all US forces on grounds they fuelled violence.
After Saturday’s Baghdad talks between senior officials, Washington said that Turkey had offered to host a planned follow-up ministerial-level conference in April and that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would attend the meeting.
Two mortar bombs exploded near the Baghdad conference building shortly after the talks began. Elsewhere in the capital, a suicide car bomber killed six Iraqi soldiers and wounded about 20 in yet another day of violence.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki urged other countries in the oil-rich region to stop supporting insurgents and do all they could to help Baghdad, saying it was vital to all to prevent the sectarian bloodletting from spilling over Iraq’s borders.
”The meeting was constructive and positive … in its atmosphere and the composition,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told a news conference. He said committees had been set up to cover security, refugees and fuel and power.
Iraq has been plagued by a Sunni Arab insurgency almost since US-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. The country’s minority Sunnis were dominant under Saddam.
Sectarian violence
But mounting sectarian violence between Sunnis and majority Shi’ite Muslims has become a major issue since the bombing of a Shi’ite shrine a year ago. Since 2003 tens of thousands have been killed and about two million driven abroad.
”No country represented at the table would benefit from a disintegrated Iraq. Indeed, all would suffer badly,” the US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, told reporters.
Khalilzad said he had talked directly to Iranian delegates as well as in a group setting but the top Iranian official said he had had no one-to-one talks with US officials.
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, said the Baghdad talks had been constructive.
Washington accuses Syria and Shi’ite Iran of supporting militants in Iraq, a charge they deny.
Neighbouring Sunni Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, fear the violence could escalate into full-scale civil war and spread beyond Iraq. They are concerned about the rise of Iraq’s Shi’ite majority and the influence of Iran in the country.
Turkey has said it will oppose secession in Iraq’s northern autonomous Kurdistan region for fear it will encourage separatism among its own Kurdish population.
Saturday’s conference brought together mid-level officials from Iraq’s neighbours, the permanent UN Security Council members — the US, Russia, China, Britain and France — and Arab countries.
In January, Bush ordered more than 20 000 extra US troops to go to Iraq, most of them to help stabilise Baghdad. There are about 140 000 US troops in Iraq at present.
Besides finding ways to stop the killings in Iraq, the meeting was a rare opportunity for old foes the US, Iran and Syria to sit at the same table.
Washington, which has no diplomatic relations with Iran, has had contacts with Iranian officials in group settings as recently as September but has resisted bilateral talks.
The US has diplomatic relations with Syria but withdrew its ambassador from Damascus in early 2005 and has had no high-level contacts for the past two years. — Reuters