Baghdad, Iraq – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Iraqi leaders Thursday that they have limited time to settle their differences and that the escalating waves of violence are intolerable.
On a visit five weeks before congressional elections in the U.S., Rice also insisted the Bush administration has been honest with Americans about the costs and stakes in Iraq.
Administration officials recently have found themselves defending their conduct of the war, and Rice’s remarks reflected the political toll for the White House from an unpopular conflict.
“This is really hard going,” Rice told reporters during her stop in the Iraqi capital. “Not only do I believe that the president has been clear with the American people that this is a struggle, he’s been clear with the American people why he thinks it’s a struggle that needs to be waged.”
After meetings in the Mideast with Arab and Israeli leaders, the top U.S. diplomat came to Iraq to tell sometimes squabbling leaders they have a short window to resolve disputes that she said are spurring sectarian and insurgent violence.
Rice said the U.S. role is “to support all the parties and indeed to press all the parties to work toward that resolution quickly because obviously the security situation is not one that can be tolerated and it is not one that is being helped by political inaction.”
Rice met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other officials as the sectarian cycle of revenge killings between Shiites and Sunnis threatened to undermine his government. Shiite and Sunni parties in al-Maliki’s coalition accuse each other of backing militias.
Al-Maliki told Iraqi state TV on Thursday that the country is in the final stage of “confronting the security challenge” and that security would be achieved “within the two or three months to come.”
Rice said Iraqis themselves must settle difficult problems such as the division of oil wealth, possible changes to the constitution and the desire for greater autonomy in various regions.
