America's new path on Iraq: talk to Iran
In a shift, the US plans to talk to Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Syria, about the region. What do key players hope to get?
from the March 1, 2007 edition
Page 4 of 4
Syria also wants to resume peace talks with Israel, and says it is willing to agree to a full peace with the Jewish state in exchange for the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967. But Israel has been split over the Syrian overtures. The Syrians are hoping to improve their image as potentially serious partners for peace and thereby ease America's pressure.
In exchange, Syria could help in Iraq, Mr. Tabler says, by encouraging the Sunni tribes of eastern Syria to try to convince their cross-border tribesmen to stop supporting the insurgency, and by tightening security along its porous 400-mile frontier with Iraq.
Russia
The Russians are intensely worried about how Middle East destabilization might affect Russia's neighbors in the Caucasus and Central Asia, as well as attitudes among their own population of 20 million Muslims.
Russia wants to reestablish its credentials as a big-power player in the region, analysts say, and more engagement on Iraq creates an opportunity to do that. President Vladimir Putin has been seeking to hold Russia up as an alternative, more accommodating pole to what is now often seen as a brash and bullying America. It also has major business interests in Iran and Syria.
"Russia has repeatedly said it wants to see the Iraq problem solved with the involvement of Iraq's neighbors and the entire world community, through engagement and dialog and not through the use of force," says Yevgeny Bazhanov, vice rector of the government's Diplomatic Academy, which trains Russian diplomats. "Without Russian involvement you couldn't have this dialog ... because Russia can play the role of mediator at that table."
Iraq
Iraq, of course, wants peace and stability, as well as to be treated as an equal by its neighbors, particularly by Sunni Arab states like Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt that are uncomfortable with the Shiite political ascendancy inside the country. The Iraqi government also worries that these neighbors, the US, and Iran are turning the country into a proxy battleground for their own disputes and are eager to see all sides sit down together and tensions defused.
• Staff writer Howard LaFranchi contributed from Washington, and correspondents Nicholas Blanford, Fred Weir, and Mark Rice-Oxley contributed from Beirut, Moscow, and London, respectively.
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