Republicans criticise Rice

Republican senators in the US criticised the Bush administration today over its policies in Iraq, Iran and the Palestinian territories, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s first testimony to Congress in months exposed her to a tough grilling from some members of her own party.

“I don’t see, Madame Secretary, how things are getting better. I think they’re getting worse in Iraq, they’re getting worse in Iran,” Sen Chuck Hagel told Rice as she appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Rice also had a tense exchange with moderate Republican Sen Lincoln Chafee over the pace of progress toward Israeli-Palestinian peace and the implications of the Hamas victory in Palestinian legislative elections last month.

“We will continue to insist that the leaders of Hamas must recognise Israel, disarm, reject terrorism and work for lasting peace,” Rice said.

Though the moderate Chafee and Hagel, a frequent Republican maverick and potential presidential candidate in 2008, are less conservative than many of their Republican colleagues, their criticism underscored a widespread frustration in Congress with the difficult problems the United States is facing across the Middle East.

Rice tried to take the offensive by announcing an administration request for £40 million this year to build democracy in Iran, saying the US must support Iranians who are seeking freedoms under what she called a radical regime.

The US and its European allies are confronting Iran over its nuclear programme. But Tehran has remained defiant and said this week that it is resuming small-scale uranium enrichment, which many countries fear could be an early step toward production of fuel for a nuclear bomb.

The money Rice wants, to be included in an emergency 2006 budget request the White House is expected to send to Congress as early as this week, would be used for radio and satellite television broadcasting and for programs to help Iranians study abroad.

“The United States wishes to reach out to the Iranian people and support their desire to realize their own freedom and to secure their own democratic and human rights. The Iranian people should know that the United States fully supports their aspirations for a freer, better future,” Rice said.

At one point, Rice and Sen Barbara Boxer interrupted one another as they argued about US policy in the Middle East, where the Democrat accused the Bush administration of having a “tin ear” to Arab views.

Boxer, who was one of Rice’s most persistent critics during a contentious confirmation process last year, also recalled Rice’s warning before the 2003 Iraq invasion that the world could not afford to let the “smoking gun” of Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction become a “mushroom cloud.”

“That was a farce and the truth is coming out,” Boxer said.

Rice plans a trip to the Middle East next week, including stops in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where the issue was sure to arise.

Sen John Kerry challenged Rice over whether she was involved in leaking classified information. “I have always acted lawfully,” Rice said.

And, Sen Joseph Biden, top Democrat on the panel, said “I’m not hopeful” of a unity government in Iraq.

“The policy seems not to be succeeding,” he said.

The leading Shiite bloc in Iraq’s fledgling democracy has chosen Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to serve another term and lead the country’s new government. The US wants al-Jaafari to form a national unity government with Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds, hoping that will rein in the violence that has raged since Saddam Hussein’s fall in 2003, but sectarian differences remain.