The United States has reversed course and agreed to sit at a diplomatic table with Iran and Syria starting next week to hash out ways to stabilize Iraq.
The decision to attend a meeting that involves Iraq’s trouble-making neighbors is a smart step for President Bush, who had dismissed the same suggestion from the Iraq Study Group in December. The IRG had urged unconditional security talks that would include Iran and Syria, but Bush decided on a more confrontational approach, sending more troops to Iraq and threatening to confront Iran and Syria. When he announced the troop buildup on Jan. 10 Bush accused Iran and Syria of “allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq.”
On Wednesday, White House spokesman Tony Snow said: “A number of people have been characterizing U.S. participation in a regional meeting as a change in policy; it is nothing of the sort.”
Iraq is organizing the gathering scheduled to begin March 10 in Baghdad. The Iraqis also invited the other four permanent members of the U.N. Security Council besides the U.S. – Britain, Russia, France and China – and international organizations.
President Bush has criticized both Iran and Syria for trying to destabilize Iraq. Recently, he accused Iran of sending lethal weapons to Shiite militias used to kill American troops. Iran, on the other hand, wants the United States to withdraw, believing that it would then have the upper hand in exercising regional influence as a result of its close ties to Iraq’s Shiite majority. Iran is said to be unhappy that the five Security Council members were invited, worried perhaps about their ties with nearby Sunni governments.
Given the widely differing views of the attendees, it’s unrealistic to expect the meeting to lead to comprehensive dialogue between Iran and Washington. Still, it’s a critical first step and acknowledges the diplomatic reality that one doesn’t make peace with friends, but with enemies. With Iran’s nuclear activities very much at odds with U.N. policy, all sides need to be on their best diplomatic behavior if they are to fruitfully discuss Iraq’s sectarian violence.
U.S. officials seem to be setting low expectations. New intelligence chief Mike McConnell on Tuesday accused Iran of training Iraqi Shiites to use their lethal weapons. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that Iranian-made weapons would be “at the top of our list” at the meetings.
Those issues need to be pursued – indeed, they are key to the matter at hand, stabilizing Iraq. But over time, we hope broader discussions will take place on the difficult issues that have made the Middle East a powder keg.
