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Bush is holding talks with a top US official at a sprawling Camp Arifjan in the Kuwaiti desert
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January 12, 2008, 09:15
US President George W. Bush held talks with the top US officials in Iraq today at a base in Kuwait, during a Gulf tour he hopes will aid the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and contain Iran.
Bush was briefed by his military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and the US ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, at the sprawling Camp Arifjan in the Kuwaiti desert, which serves as a staging ground for forces deploying to Iraq.
US forces plan a limited phased withdrawal of about 20 000 troops from Iraq by mid-year, a drawdown Bush announced in September following a "surge" in troop numbers earlier in 2007 to try to stop violence spiralling out of control.
With the Iraq war nearing the five-year mark, Bush has refused to discuss any further troop cuts for now, saying that will depend on his commanders' judgments. But he gave a sense of the long-term US commitment when he said in a television interview yesterday that the United States would have a presence in Iraq that could "easily" last a decade.
The war remains deeply unpopular among Americans, keeping Bush's approval ratings stuck around 30% and below. But a fall in violence has taken much of the steam out of efforts by Democratic congressional leaders to try to link war funding to troop withdrawal timetables, something Bush refuses to accept.
Most Democrats still maintain, however, that dramatic changes are needed in Bush's Iraq strategy. Petraeus is due to report to the US Congress in March on whether more troop reductions are advisable. He said last month that security gains were fragile and still reversible without political reconciliation between warring sects to cement them.
Despite heavy US pressure, Iraq's main Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish political blocs have failed to agree on key laws seen by Washington as crucial to bridging the sectarian divide.
Gulf tour
Bush arrived in Kuwait yesterday evening after wrapping up his first presidential visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank, emboldened enough to have predicted a peace treaty within a year but with no major breakthroughs for his efforts.
He had dinner with Kuwait's ruler, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who thanked Bush for his efforts to make progress on issues crucial to the Middle East. Kuwait was the first of five Arab countries Bush will visit and which he hopes to enlist to help contain Tehran's growing regional clout.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said talks would now turn to "the threats that we've seen in the Gulf, the problem of extremism, whether it be extremism from al Qaeda, Sunni extremism, or whether it be Iran and its tentacles, like Hezbollah and the part of Hamas that Iran supports".
Gulf states have battled al Qaeda militants in recent years, but they are also concerned about the crises in Lebanon and Iraq, as well as the standoff over Iran's nuclear programme. Local media said Kuwait's emir would tell Bush of his concerns that a US strike on nearby Iran would destabilise the Gulf, key to world oil supplies.
Bush is likely to hear a similar message from other Gulf Arab leaders who want to curb their Shi'ite Muslim neighbour's nuclear programme without resorting to war. Kuwait has said it will not allow the United States to use its territory for any strike against Iran. - Reuters
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