USA: Rice says U.S. needs to keep Iraq safe from Iran in first administration response to Petraeus report

The United States wants to ensure Iraq's territorial integrity, including from "very troublesome neighbors" like Iran, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday (September 12). In the first administration comment since General David Petraeus presented his report to Congress on the Iraq war, Rice said that the situation has improved in Iraq under President George W. Bush's strategy of temporarily building up troops to allow time for Iraqi lawmakers to achieve political reconciliation. Rice, in an interview on NBC's "Today" show, agreed that there was still work to be done but she said the American troop presence was important to secure not only Iraq but neighboring countries. "The way ahead here is to solidify the gains that we have made ... and to begin to have American forces, in lower numbers, turn to other responsibilities which frankly, like a stable Iraq, are very key to our interests, including securing the territorial integrity of Iraq," Rice said. "Iraq has very troublesome neighbors. Iran is a very troublesome neighbor," she said, noting that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that if the United States leaves Iraq, Iran is prepared to fill the vacuum. Petraeus, answering media questions on his plan to gradually pull out 30,000 troops from Iraq by next summer, said Iran was supporting sophisticated attacks in the country. "I'm not blaming Iran for all this going wrong in Iraq," he said. "What I stated is in fact what we have learned about Iranian activity. And it certainly has contributed to a sophistication of attacks that would by no means be possible without Iranian support." Washington is leading international efforts to isolate Iran over its disputed nuclear program and accuses it of fomenting instability in Iraq. Iran has long called for U.S. forces to leave its neighbour, and an Iranian foreign ministry statement on Wednesday (September 12) made clear the suggested troop withdrawal did not go far enough for Tehran. Bush is expected to endorse Petraeus' recommendation for a troop drawdown when he gives a 20-minute speech on Iraq at 9 p.m. EDT on Thursday (0100 GMT on Friday). He is expected to emphasize that he is able to order troop cuts only because of the success achieved on the ground in Iraq.

ITN Source | September 13, 2007

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