Kuwait urges US to talk to Iran and Syria

Kuwait’s emir told the US secretary of state that Washington should talk to Syria and Iran to improve the situation in Iraq, the Kuwaiti foreign minister said today.

Sheikh Mohammed Al Sabah told reporters that when Condoleezza Rice met Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, yesterday, she had spoken of the “the difficulties facing the Iraqi government in imposing security and (difficulties caused by) outside interference”.

“That is why his highness (the emir) stressed the importance of a dialogue with (Iraq’s) neighbours, and the importance that there is no estrangement between them and America,” Sheikh Mohammed said.

He quoted the emir as telling Rice it was important to have a “dialogue with Syria, in particular, and with Iran in the interest of Gulf security in general”.

Rice went to Kuwait yesterday for a meeting on Iraq with her counterparts from the six Arab Gulf states plus Jordan and Egypt.

Speaking at Kuwait Airport before flying to Oman, Sheikh Mohammed did not reveal what the eight foreign ministers told Rice about the new US plan for Iraq.

He said that Kuwait supported US President George Bush’s “difficult” decision to send 21,500 more US troops to Iraq.

“President Bush decided to prevent Iraq from slipping into a civil war by enhancing the capabilities of the Iraqi armed forces to fight extremists and militias,” said the foreign minister.

In announcing his Iraq plan last week, Bush rejected the recommendation of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan US panel, which had urged talks with Damascus and Tehran on ways of curbing the sectarian violence in Iraq.

Bush accused Iran and Syria of failing to stop fighters from crossing into Iraq to join the insurgency and blamed Iran in particular for providing material for attacks on American troops, a charge that Tehran denies.

Iran and Syria are believed to have influence with insurgents in Iraq. Iran has strong ties with Iraqi Shiites, who have powerful militia, and Syria is believed to host senior members of the deposed Baathist regime in Iraq, which is playing a significant role in the insurgency.

When Rice defended the Bush plan in the US senate last week, she said that in return for cooperation on Iraq, Iran would demand US concessions on its nuclear programme and Syria would ask the United States to ease its opposition to Syrian policies in Lebanon, where it is accused of undermining the pro-Western government.