By NNN-KUNA,
Washington : US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has called on Arab states neighbouring Iraq to reinforce the Arab identity of this embattled country.
“What Iraq now needs most and what I will push for in Kuwait is greater support from its neighbours,” said Rice in a press briefing Thursday.
Rice travels to the region on Saturday to attend on April 21 in Bahrain the meeting of foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), plus Egypt and Jordan later and will stop in Kuwait to participate in an Expanded Neighbours of Iraq Ministerial Meeting on April 22.
“What they need to do is confirm and work for Iraq’s Arab identity,” said Rice.
“Iraq is first and foremost an Arab state. It is a state in which Iraqi nationalism is very strong and the neighbours ought to be reinforcing that,” she added.
Rice said that Arab neighbours could help Iraq in encouraging Sunnis participate fully in the political process, in reconstruction and humanitarian assistance and debt relief. “Iraq’s fellow Arab states must fulfil their promises to increase their diplomatic, economic, social and cultural engagement with Iraq’s government and people,” she added.
Rice called upon Arab states to establish embassies in Baghdad and exchange ambassadors, noting that the United States “continues to await” Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to name their diplomatic envoys to Iraq as they recently declared.
Rice said she has no plans to meet with Iranian officials on the sidelines of the meeting in Kuwait. “Iran must end malign actions that interfere in Iraq’s affairs, undermine Iraq’s government and harm or murder innocent Iraqis,” she noted.