By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 42 minutes ago
Changing course, the United States is joining the Iraqi government in a diplomatic initiative inviting Iran and Syria to a "neighbors meeting" on stabilizing Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday.
The move reflects a change of approach by the Bush administration, which previously had resisted calls by members of Congress and by a bipartisan Iraq review group to include Iran and Syria in such talks.
"We hope that all governments will seize this opportunity to improve their relations with Iraq and to work for peace and stability in the region," Rice told the Senate Appropriations Committee in a hearing on the administration's request for additional war funding.
Rice said the diplomatic initiative is aimed at building more support, both within the Middle East and beyond, for peace and prosperity in Iraq. She added that U.S. and Iraqi officials agree that success in Iraq — after four years of war — "requires the positive support of Iraq's neighbors."
At the same time, Sen. Robert Byrd (news, bio, voting record), D-W.Va., chairman of the committee, lambasted the administration's past approach in Iraq.
"Congress cannot continue to fund failing policies and failing strategies," Byrd said. "Under the president's plan, there is no end, I say, no end in sight."
The Rice announcement came even as the United States is engaged in its latest confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program, which U.S. officials say is aimed at developing nuclear weapons but Tehran says is for new sources of energy.
A U.N. Security Council deadline for Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment has just expired, and in response the U.S. wants the council to expand the limited sanctions the world body has imposed on Iran.
As for the neighbors meeting, Rice stressed that it was the Iraqi government inviting Iran and Syria to participate, with the United States in support.
At the White House, press secretary Tony Snow told reporters the administration is "happy that the government of Iraq is taking this step and engaging its neighbors. And we also hope and expect that Iran and Syria will play constructive roles in those talks."
But Snow cautioned people to be patient, noting that "this is one where the agenda is being set up by the government of Iraq. And the conditions, especially for bilateral conversations with the Iranians, are pretty clear."
The administration in recent weeks had increased its public criticism of Iran's role in Iraq, charging it with supplying deadly weapons, including advanced technologies for the most lethal form of roadside bombs. The administration also has accused Syria of harboring anti-Iraqi government forces and allowing weapons to cross its border.
Meanwhile, Democrats' plans to limit President Bush's war authority and force a change of course in Iraq are faltering amid party divisions over how quickly and aggressively they should act.
A group of senior Senate Democrats is pushing to repeal the 2002 measure authorizing the war and pass a new resolution restricting the mission and ordering troop withdrawals to begin by this summer. In the House, a respected veteran wants to use Congress' spending power to essentially force Bush to scale back U.S. involvement in Iraq.
Both plans appear to lack the support they would need to prevail, however, as Democratic leaders struggle to form party consensus on how to move forward.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., said he wants to put off votes on the new, narrower war authorization so the Senate can turn to a measure enacting the recommendations of the bipartisan 9/11 commission.
"Iraq is going to be there — it's just a question of when we get back to it," Reid said, predicting it would be "days, not weeks" before the Senate returned to the issue.
The Iraqi government announced in Baghdad that it is preparing the meeting for mid-March, and that invitees include members of the Arab League and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the U.S., Britain, France, China and Russia.
Syria will be represented at the conference by Ahmed Arnous, an aide to the foreign minister, an Iraqi Foreign Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the plans had not yet been formally announced. Other Arab countries and Iran have not confirmed their attendance or the level of delegates they would send.
Rice said the mid-March meeting will be held at the sub-ministerial level. That is to be followed, perhaps as early as the first half of April, by a full ministerial-level meeting with the same invited countries, plus members of the G-8 group of leading industrial powers.
"I would note that the Iraqi government has invited Syria and Iran to attend both of these regional meetings," Rice said. She also noted that the Iraq Study Group, headed by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, had recommended inviting Iran and Syria to such a neighbors meeting. At the time of that recommendation in December, President Bush rejected that diplomatic approach.
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AP Military Writer Robert Burns in Washington and Brian Murphy in Baghdad contributed to this story.