SHARM EL-SHEIKH (Egypt), May 3: The United States engaged in rare contacts with foes Syria and Iran on Thursday on the sidelines of a landmark meeting that adopted measures aimed at rescuing Iraq from chaos and bankruptcy.
Foreign ministers and officials from more than 50 countries gathered in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, adopted the so-called International Compact, a roadmap for stabilising Iraq in five years.
The meeting also won Iraq pledges for 30 billion dollars worth of debt relief, but was dominated by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's encounters with her Syrian and Iranian counterparts.
She held a meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem which she described as “professional, businesslike”. “Today on the margins of the larger meeting, there was an opportunity to talk about the problem of foreign fighters, a major source of the suicide bombings in Iraq,” she told reporters.
The meeting was the first at such a high level in more than two years, and marked an apparent shift in US policy towards Syria, which has been repeatedly accused by Washington of funding Iraq's bloody Sunni Arab insurgency.
“This is not a favour to the US, it is an opportunity to help stabilise Iraq and therefore serve the neighbourhood,” she added.
Since the eve of the two-day Sharm el-Sheikh conference, Rice and Iraqi officials have stressed the importance of clinching a commitment from Iraq's neighbours to help end the bloodshed.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany, which holds the presidencies of the European Union and the Group of Eight club of wealthy nations, reacted cautiously to the Rice-Muallem talks, but welcomed the prospect of a new dialogue.
“We cannot draw the conclusion that because of a meeting things will improve,” he said. “But a meeting like this may be the beginning of a dialogue that contributes to clearing up existing misunderstandings and preventing future ones from developing.” Speculation had abounded over the possibility of a meeting between Rice and her Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, on the sidelines of the conference.
The two only exchanged basic civilities over a lunch attended by several other diplomats, but their brief encounter was nevertheless seen as significant between two countries which broke diplomatic ties in 1980.—AFP
