Rice visits Baghdad in plea for support from Arab nations
Sunday, 20 Apr 2008 18:47
Rice wants Arab nations to pledge more diplomatic support for the government of prime minister Nouri Maliki
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US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice has urged Arab nations to offer diplomatic ties and debt relief to Iraq's government.
In a surprise visit to Baghdad today, Ms Rice said she hoped Iraq's neighbours would help improve the country's security.
Ms Rice is in the
Middle East for a conference with Gulf states on Tuesday, hoping that Saudi Arabia and Bahrain will open embassies in Baghdad and allow Iraq debt relief.
She will meet ministers in Bahrain from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) along with Egypt and Jordan before going to Kuwait for the neighbours' meeting.
The GCC consists of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain.
"The neighbours could do more to live up to their obligations because I do believe the Iraqis are beginning to live up to theirs," Ms Rice said.
"A number of people at this meeting will have done debt relief. Well, Iraq's neighbours ought to do that debt relief. The debt relief has come from the Paris Club, not from Iraq's neighbours."
Ms Rice added that she saw a "coalescing of a centre in Iraqi politics" and Sunnis, Shias and Kurds had been working together better than ever before.
The US secretary of state arrived in the city a day after Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr threatened to wage "open war" on Iraq's government.
He urged US troops to halt operations against his supporters. On Saturday, Iraqi and US troops clashed with his forces in Baghdad and the south.
At least six people were killed and 15 injured in the latest clashes in the Sadr City area of Baghdad, according to reports.