Syria has announced that it will attend what could be an
unprecedented meeting called by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki. In a major move to bring peace to Iraq, the prime
minister has called on Iraq's neighbors and the permanent members
of the United Nations Security Council to meet in Baghdad March
10.
The meeting would be a chance, as Iraqi Foreign Minister
Hoshiyar Zebari put it, for Syria and possibly Iran to solve
differences with Western countries over Iraq.
The international community needs to make efforts to restore
peace and stability in Iraq.
The support of Iraq's neighbors is vital. Peace and stability in
Iraq are needed both to stop the destruction of this bloodied
country and to build stability in the Middle East.
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Iraq's continued instability is likely to have an adverse impact on
the security of the entire region and beyond.
As we have seen, the problem of insecurity cannot be solved
through military means alone. Political solutions are required.
The United States is pressing its new policy of diplomatic
efforts, saying on Thursday it will send Assistant Secretary of
State Ellen Sauerbrey to Syria.
Her visit this month will be part of a regional tour dealing
with humanitarian issues related to Iraqi refugees. Sauerbrey, who
handles refugee and migration affairs at the US State Department,
will be authorized to meet with her Syrian counterparts to discuss
the refugee issue.
Some one million Iraqi refugees have fled to Syria since
2003.
Sauerbrey will be the highest-ranking US official to visit Syria
since early 2005, when then Deputy Secretary of State Richard
Armitage traveled to Damascus. The United States withdrew its
ambassador after Syrian authorities were implicated in the February
2005 assassination in Beirut of former Lebanese Prime Minister
Rafiq Hariri.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that she and
other US officials will join their Syrian and Iranian counterparts
in coming weeks at conferences on Iraq's future.
Although the possibility of bilateral talks between the US and
Syria or Iran has not been announced, the US seems to be adjusting
its policies on the two countries.
Inviting Syria and Iran to the Iraq talks may help Iraq to find
the desperately needed path to peace and stability.
(China Daily March 5, 2007)
