Iraq
Vacuum May lead Neighbors, Turkey in Particular, to Meddle in Iraq
Rice WASHINGTON, May 10 (KUNA) -- A precipitous
U.S. pullout from Iraq would create a vacuum which neighbors of Iraq, including
Turkey in particular, would likely fill by meddling in Iraqi affairs, Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday during testimony before the Senate
Appropriations Committee.
A senator on the committee asked Rice if one
potential consequence of the United States leaving Iraq precipitously would be a
breakdown in stability, leading to huge pressure relative to Kurdish
relationships with Turkey and potentially a very significant military concern.
"Absolutely," Rice replied. "Because Iraq sits
as it does on the fault lines between Shia and Sunni and with Kurds to the
north, I think if you had a vacuum there you would see it would be pretty
irresistible for Iraq's neighbors to try and secure their interests by meddling
in Iraq's affairs. Now, if you have an Iraq that is able to manage its affairs,
then I think those neighbors will be more likely to simply cooperate with that
stable government." Rice said she delivered that message during the recent Iraq
Neighbors Conference at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
"The Iraqis need very much to pursue urgently
their national reconciliation and to bring the various groups together, but the
neighbors need to allow them the space in which to do that," she said. "The
neighbors need to be devoted to helping stabilize Iraq, not destabilize it. And
the neighbors need to have kind of rules of the road, which is really what Sharm
el-Sheikh was about -- about how they are going to deal with a democratic and
sovereign government in Iraq. Because I think if we were to leave precipitously,
we would encourage not just chaos in Iraq, but we would encourage chaos in the
region as well." Asked what the U.S. role should be toward Turkey presently,
when it is undergoing stresses between its elected government and its military,
Rice said the U.S. role should be to stand for the democratic and constitutional
processes in Turkey.
"The government that was elected by the people
there has actually been a government dedicated to pulling Turkey west toward
Europe," she said. "It has been the policy of that government, even though it is
led by leadership from the AKP Party, which has Islamic roots, it has been
trying to integrate into Europe." The Turkish government of Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan has been changing its laws to try to become consistent with
European Union (EU) requirements for laws on individual and religious freedom
and other issues of that kind, Rice said, alluding to Turkish efforts to join
the EU.
