WASHINGTON: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were set to depart Monday for a vital Middle East mission seeking Arab support for Iraq and consultations on aid and weapons sales to allies in the region. Amid growing calls at home to withdraw US forces in Iraq, Rice and Gates were expected to reaffirm US commitment to regional security against possible threats from Iran and its nuclear program. The pair 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 last week. Ahead of the trip, the Bush administration was to announce Monday arms deals worth at least $20 billion with Saudi Arabia and the five other Gulf states, US media reported. Also to be unveiled is military assistance agreements providing $13 billion dollars to Egypt over 10 years, the reports said. Already on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced that Washington had agreed to a 25 percent increase in its military aid to Israel, which now will total some 30 billion dollars in the coming decade. Olmert said the additional aid will help achieve considerable improvements in Israel s security. In a bid to soothe concerns of the pro-Western Sunni nations worried about Shiite Iran, Washington is also expected to discuss military aid packages and arms sales with them. The arms deals, according to one administration official, are aimed at shoring up US allies in the Middle East and countering a more aggressive Iran.
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 and Gates were due to make rare joint visits to Egypt and Saudi Arabia before separate trips to other parts of the region. They were expected to underline concerns that some Sunni Arab nations are offering financial aid to foreign fighters fueling the insurgency against the fragile Shiite-led, US-backed government in Baghdad. In Egypt, Rice and Gates were 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. Washington is particularly concerned that Arab ally, Saudi Arabia, is bankrolling Sunni militants and serving as a conduit for them to stoke the insurgency in Iraq. 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, McCormack said. 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 Arab states would support the Israeli-Palestinian track, as she prepares for international peace talks this fall. 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.
These will be very important consultations, she said.
