Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates leave Monday on a vital Middle East mission to seek Arab support to bolster Iraq and to discuss weapons sales with allies.
Amid growing calls at home to withdraw US forces in Iraq, the duo are also expected to reaffirm US commitment to regional security against possible threats from Iran and its nuclear program. In addition, Washington is expected to underline concerns that some Sunni Arab nations are offering financial aid to foreign fighters fuelling the insurgency against the fragile Shiite-led, US-backed government in Baghdad. Rice and Gates will make rare joint visits to Egypt and Saudi Arabia before separate trips to other parts of the region. In Egypt, they are scheduled to meet ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman -- as well as Jordan and Egypt in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh. They will "discuss the ways in which Iraq's neighbors can help advance the cause of security and stability in that country," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. Washington is particularly concerned that its most powerful Sunni Arab ally, Saudi Arabia, is bankrolling Sunni militants and serving as a conduit for them to stoke the insurgency in Iraq. Aside from Saudi Arabia, foreign fighters flowing into Iraq via US arch-enemy Syria come from Qatar and Yemen, among other Middle East allies, US officials said. Rice and Gates "are going to be talking to the Saudis as well as others about what they might do" in supporting the Iraqi Government, not only on the security front but also diplomatically and financially, McCormack said. Their "historical differences and tensions are going to need to be overcome," he said. But in a bid to soothe concerns of the pro-Western Sunni nations worried about Shiite Iran, Washington is expected to discuss military aid packages and arms sales with them. Ahead of the Rice-Gates trip, the Bush administration will announce Monday a series of arms deals worth at least 20 billion dollars with Saudi Arabia and the five other Gulf states, US media reported. Also to be unveiled are military assistance agreements providing 30 billion dollars in new US aid to Israel and 13 billion dollars to Egypt over 10 years, the reports said. The arms deals, which include the sales of a variety of sophisticated weaponry, would be the largest negotiated by the administration of President George W. Bush, according to the Washington Post. The deals are aimed at shoring up US allies in the Middle East and countering "a more aggressive Iran," as one administration official put it. US allies in the Gulf are "very concerned about what our commitment and the possibility of withdrawal from Iraq means for the region," a Pentagon official said. Gates will reassure them that "regardless of what happens in the near term in Iraq, that our commitment in the region remains firm, remains steadfast and that in fact we are looking to enhance and develop it." Rice will travel separately to Jerusalem and Ramallah for meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials. Last week, the Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers visited Israel to tout a peace plan first mooted by Saudi Arabia in 2002, and said they were encouraged by the Israeli response. Without singling out Saudi Arabia, Rice said she hoped other Arab states would take advantage of "this opening to develop an Israel-Arab track to go alongside and to support the Israeli-Palestinian track." The peace plan offers Israel normalization of ties with Arab nations in exchange for full withdrawal from Arab land occupied since 1967, the creation of a Palestinian state and a return of refugees. The trip will also allow Rice to prepare for international Middle East peace talks, which President George W. Bush announced would be held this fall. Washington is especially keen on having Saudi Arabia attend the meeting, which seeks to bring together Israel, the Palestinians and their neighbors with Rice. During her trip, Rice said she wanted to talk to allies in the region about "how they see and what they would see to be a useful international meeting. "The United States doesn't want made-in-America solutions. We need the entire population of states that are devoted to the two-state solution to work with us," she said. "And so these will be very important consultations."
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