Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Politics

U.S. will join forums with Iran, Syria

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published February 28, 2007

WASHINGTON - In a softening of its refusal to pursue direct diplomacy with two Middle East adversaries, the Bush administration announced Tuesday that it will participate in a series of international meetings on Iraq that will include representatives of Iran and Syria.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced the talks with Iraq and its neighbors as "a new diplomatic offensive." She said she hoped Iran and Syria would "seize the opportunity to improve their relations with Iraq - and to work for peace and stability in the region."

But her announcement at a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee - amid signs that the Iraqi army has failed to send the troops it promised to Baghdad - appeared to fall short of calls from Congress and the bipartisan Iraq Study Group to open direct negotiations with Tehran and Damascus.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called the talks a "first step," but said, "It is not enough on its own."

The White House has accused Tehran of developing nuclear weapons, Damascus of trying to undermine Lebanon's government, and both governments of aiding anti-U.S. forces in Iraq. Until now, it had refused high-level talks with either country.

The first meeting is due to take place in Baghdad in mid March, hosted by the Iraqi government, and a second, in which Rice might participate, is set for April in the region.

Meanwhile, top U.S. intelligence officials disclosed that the deployment of Iraqi forces into Baghdad under President Bush's new plan to stabilize Iraq is running behind schedule and that all of the units sent so far have arrived understrength, some by more than half.

Top military officials, speaking at the same hearing with Rice, gave a mixed review on the early implementation of the plan, which is aimed at ending carnage in the capital between Shiites and Sunni Muslims.

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Iraqi military was "good for the most part," but uneven. He added that the soldiers should be able to replace U.S. troops by late 2007.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates testified that the Pentagon would send Congress a confidential report on the Iraqi military this week. "I am watching to see how the Iraqis perform," he said. "So far, so good."

The plan, which Bush announced in January, calls for the deployment of an extra 17,500 American troops to Baghdad, along with thousands of additional Iraqi security forces. The Iraqis are to play the leading role in suppressing the violence.

But retired Vice Adm. John McConnell, the new director of national intelligence, and Army Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in a separate hearing that the Iraqi army sent to Baghdad only two of the three additional brigades that were to have been in place by Feb. 15.

An Iraqi brigade is supposed to have 3,200 men.

McConnell said one reason for the Iraqi shortfalls is that typically 25 percent of an Iraqi army unit is away on leave or on some other assignment. But U.S. and Iraqi officials also have cited high desertion rates as a serious problem.

Fast Facts:

The latest on Iraq

- Bombers struck public gathering spots in Baghdad on Tuesday, ranging from an ice cream parlor to a kebab shop, causing at least eight deaths. Police reported discovering the bodies of 31 men who had been shot to death.

- U.S.-led strike forces seized suspected Shiite death squad bosses Tuesday in raids in Baghdad. At least 16 people were arrested.

- A roadside bomb southwest of Baghdad killed three U.S. soldiers. A fourth soldier was killed near Diwaniyah, the military said.

- State television reported that 18 boys were killed when a car bomb exploded in a park in Ramadi, but the U.S. military said it set off a controlled explosion that went awry, injuring 31 people, including several children. The military said it had no reports of any other blasts in Ramadi.

Times wires

[Last modified February 28, 2007, 11:14:36]