THE US' most senior military official in the Gulf yesterday said he had been left baffled by hostile questioning of his country's intentions in the region on the opening day of the Manama Dialogue.
Commander of US Central Command Admiral William J Fallon told the GDN that the strongly-worded questions posed by Arab delegates to US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates on whether the large US military presence in the Gulf is in the region's best interests overlooked the important role played by his country.
"I think Secretary Gates did a masterful job today, particularly with the questions. Some were clearly hostile questions, and you scratch your head at some of the thinking," said Admiral Fallon, who has responsibility for US military operations in the Middle East, East Africa and Central Asia.
"I just reject out of hand the premise of some of the comments we heard - we are a force for peace in the world and we engage here for the purpose of trying to make this a better world, and I think the record pretty much speaks for itself."
He praised Secretary Gates' opening address to the high-profile security forum, and said it neatly captured the current US view of the volatile region.
"I believe he covered the situation very well, and he captured the Iranian challenge in its entirety. It's important that people look at recent reports - or at least the excerpts made public - and form judgements of Iranian behaviour based on the best knowledge available," said Admiral Fallon.
"The other thing is the loud and clear message that we are here listening to what people have to say and working with them to find the appropriate solutions to the challenges we face and focusing on the future."
Admiral Fallon, who was appointed to his current post in March this year, said controversial actions such as the invasion of Iraq taken on the watch of his predecessor John Abizaid should not be used as an excuse to prevent close co-operation with the US in future.
"There is not much I can do about things that have happened in the past - we can debate them in an academic setting, I'm all for that, but right now we need results and we need to be looking to work together constructively to get those results," he explained, adding that the US was keen to use diplomacy to solve differences with Iran over its uranium enrichment programme.
"Our ultimate goal is to have a more stable world and we are clearly in favour of trying to get the Iranians to sit down at the appropriate time and demonstrate to us that they are interested in solutions."
Meanwhile, Qatar indicated at the conference yesterday that Iraq had not been invited to the regional summit because of Baghdad's treatment of Sunnis.
Qatari Prime Minister Shaikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani was responding to a question by Iraq's national security adviser Mowaffaq Al Rubaie why non-Arab Turkey and Shi'ite Iran were invited to last week's Doha Gulf summit, but not Iraq.
Shaikh Hamad added that Turkey and Iran had asked to join the summit and that Iraq was too fragmented to take part.
