Rice Suggests Carter Confused Peace Process
By ROBERT F. WORTH
KUWAIT Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed concern on Tuesday that former president Jimmy Carters recent meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal could confuse American efforts to broker a Palestinian-Israeli peace accord.
We wanted to make sure there would be no confusion and there would be no sense that Hamas was somehow a party to peace negotiations" between Israel and more moderate Palestinians, said Ms. Rice, speaking on the margins of an international meeting here on aid to Iraq.
Ms. Rice also affirmed that the State Department had explicitly advised Mr. Carter not to meet with Hamas, which the United States considers a terrorist group. Mr. Carter told National Public Radio on Monday that he had not received a clear signal from the Bush administration before leaving on his Middle East tour last week.
We counseled President Carter against going to the region and particularly against having contacts with Hamas, Ms. Rice said, responding to questions from reporters.
Mr. Carter has defended his personal diplomacy with Hamas, which controls Gaza, saying any final peace settlement would have to include the militant group.
Ms. Rice spoke after the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, made an urgent appeal for greater international support to Iraq, and he voiced frustration with fellow Arab nations for failing to send ambassadors and relieve Iraqs debts.
It is hard for us to understand why our Arab brothers do not exchange diplomats with Iraq, Mr. Maliki said, speaking at a gathering of Iraqs neighbors and other backers here. He added that some Western countries have kept their diplomatic missions in Baghdad, and have not given security as an excuse.
Mr. Maliki and Ms. Rice have made similar appeals at two similar meetings over the past year. Those have resulted in numerous rhetorical expressions of support, and even pledges to send ambassadors to Iraq, but little tangible progress.
Ms. Rice seemed sanguine about aid to Iraq, saying debt relief was on the way and that diplomatic issues would soon be resolved. The Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, speaking to reporters alongside Ms. Rice and the Turkish foreign minister, said we have to be patient with our Arab brothers.
He also said: I think the will is there they want to reach out and they recognize that their absence is not helpful.
But Mr. Maliki sounded a harsher note, suggesting that Arab countries had failed to appreciate Iraqs struggles over the past five years, and adding that Iraqs debts were accrued during wars waged by Saddam Hussein, not by the current regime.
The efforts to aid Iraq have been complicated by an issue that remained largely unspoken at the conference: many Sunni Arab countries are deeply suspicious of Shiite Iran, and anxious about Irans powerful influence in Iraqs new Shiite-led government.
Sectarian political issues also lurked behind an afternoon meeting about the political crisis in Lebanon, to which Syria and Iran which support the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah -- were not invited. That omission provoked an angry response from Syrian foreign minister Walid Moallem.
Mr. Moallem accused the United States of trying to strengthen its hegemony over Lebanon by pushing its allies to act unilaterally. He also lashed out at Arab League Secretary General Amr Mousa, who attended the meeting, and Terje Roed-Larsen, a United Nations special envoy to Lebanon whom Mr. Moallem accused of arranging it.
All these issues are intertwined Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, said Abdullah al Shayji, a professor of political science at Kuwait University, who attended the conference. Thats part of the reason they are so difficult to solve.
By ROBERT F. WORTH
KUWAIT Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed concern on Tuesday that former president Jimmy Carters recent meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal could confuse American efforts to broker a Palestinian-Israeli peace accord.
We wanted to make sure there would be no confusion and there would be no sense that Hamas was somehow a party to peace negotiations" between Israel and more moderate Palestinians, said Ms. Rice, speaking on the margins of an international meeting here on aid to Iraq.
Ms. Rice also affirmed that the State Department had explicitly advised Mr. Carter not to meet with Hamas, which the United States considers a terrorist group. Mr. Carter told National Public Radio on Monday that he had not received a clear signal from the Bush administration before leaving on his Middle East tour last week.
We counseled President Carter against going to the region and particularly against having contacts with Hamas, Ms. Rice said, responding to questions from reporters.
Mr. Carter has defended his personal diplomacy with Hamas, which controls Gaza, saying any final peace settlement would have to include the militant group.
Ms. Rice spoke after the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, made an urgent appeal for greater international support to Iraq, and he voiced frustration with fellow Arab nations for failing to send ambassadors and relieve Iraqs debts.
It is hard for us to understand why our Arab brothers do not exchange diplomats with Iraq, Mr. Maliki said, speaking at a gathering of Iraqs neighbors and other backers here. He added that some Western countries have kept their diplomatic missions in Baghdad, and have not given security as an excuse.
Mr. Maliki and Ms. Rice have made similar appeals at two similar meetings over the past year. Those have resulted in numerous rhetorical expressions of support, and even pledges to send ambassadors to Iraq, but little tangible progress.
Ms. Rice seemed sanguine about aid to Iraq, saying debt relief was on the way and that diplomatic issues would soon be resolved. The Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, speaking to reporters alongside Ms. Rice and the Turkish foreign minister, said we have to be patient with our Arab brothers.
He also said: I think the will is there they want to reach out and they recognize that their absence is not helpful.
But Mr. Maliki sounded a harsher note, suggesting that Arab countries had failed to appreciate Iraqs struggles over the past five years, and adding that Iraqs debts were accrued during wars waged by Saddam Hussein, not by the current regime.
The efforts to aid Iraq have been complicated by an issue that remained largely unspoken at the conference: many Sunni Arab countries are deeply suspicious of Shiite Iran, and anxious about Irans powerful influence in Iraqs new Shiite-led government.
Sectarian political issues also lurked behind an afternoon meeting about the political crisis in Lebanon, to which Syria and Iran which support the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah -- were not invited. That omission provoked an angry response from Syrian foreign minister Walid Moallem.
Mr. Moallem accused the United States of trying to strengthen its hegemony over Lebanon by pushing its allies to act unilaterally. He also lashed out at Arab League Secretary General Amr Mousa, who attended the meeting, and Terje Roed-Larsen, a United Nations special envoy to Lebanon whom Mr. Moallem accused of arranging it.
All these issues are intertwined Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, said Abdullah al Shayji, a professor of political science at Kuwait University, who attended the conference. Thats part of the reason they are so difficult to solve.