14 December 2008: Arab Times
MANAMA, Bahrain - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged Middle East nations Saturday to help fight the spread of violent extremism by funding and training Afghan security forces and reaching out more aggressively to the fledgling government in Iraq. Gates also assured a gathering of Arabian Gulf leaders here that President-elect Barack Obama will continue the US commitment to the Middle East, including efforts to fight terrorism and develop a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. And as the lone Republican holdover from the Bush Cabinet to the Obama team, Gates issued a public warning that any effort by terrorists to test the new administration would be a mistake because there has been extensive planning to ensure a smooth transition.
“Anyone who thought that the upcoming months might present opportunities to ‘test’ the new administration would be sorely mistaken,” Gates said. “President Obama and his national security team, myself included, will be ready to defend the interests of the United States and our friends and allies from the moment he takes office on Jan 20.” Saying that a stable Iraq can play an important role in the region, Gates urged Gulf leaders to set aside old hostilities inflamed in the Saddam era and forge diplomatic ties with Iraq. “All of us have a stake in Iraq’s ongoing fight with extremists,” Gates said. “Neighbors must lend support and increase their border-control efforts, especially those that have thus far failed to live up to pledges to tighten border crossings.”
Gates has persistently pressed Middle East nations to provide political, economic and overall support to Iraq, saying that if that country falls back into extremist control it will be a threat to the entire region. On Iran, his speech struck a more reserved tone this year, compared with his sharper criticism in remarks here last year of Tehran as a chaotic and destabilizing threat. He and others have rebuked Iran for helping bolster militants who then cross the border back in to Iraq. Officials have long believed that Iran — at some level — has provided funding and training to insurgents, and supported the delivery of lethal explosives to Iraq.
On Saturday, Gates pressed Gulf nations to impose sanctions on Iran but added that they can be even more influential “by welcoming the new Iraq into the Arab fold.” Withholding support for the country, he said, increases the risk that Iraq will be overcome by Iranian influence that has already cost many lives. Asked later about Iran, Gates said Tehran is meddling and attempting to destabilize the region, but said the US is not working for a regime change there, just a change in Iran’s behavior. He said the incoming Obama administration is “under no illusion about Iran’s behavior and what Iran has been doing in the region” and what it has been doing to increase it’s weapons program, including it’s pursuit of nuclear power. He offered a similar message on Afghanistan, saying that a failed state there will increase the chances that al-Qaida and other extremists will take hold again — a threat that would stretch across the Middle East and beyond.
“An enduring requirement is the ability to rapidly train, equip, and advise Afghan security forces,” said Gates, asking that Gulf nations fund and send forces — including engineers and agricultural experts.
Gates said that while he is prepared to send an additional 20,000 troops to Afghan, he is concerned about having the foreign military force be too large and appear more like occupiers.
"We ought to think long and hard about how many more (troops) go in,” Gates said.
Gates spent much of the day Thursday in Afghanistan meeting with commanders. He has endorsed plans to add at least 20,000 more US troops to the fight there. A senior military official traveling with Gates said Friday that the major combat units that will be sent to Afghanistan have been identified, but Gates has made no final decisions. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the deployment decisions have not been announced.
Gates also held private meetings in Manama on Friday with officials from the Gulf Cooperation Council, which is made up of the six oil-rich nations of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Warn
Gates warned the United States’ enemies on Saturday against trying to take advantage of the early months of the new Washington administration to test US resolve.
Gates also said the United States would stay deeply involved in the Middle East and the Gulf under Barack Obama’s administration.
“I can assure you that a change in administration does not alter our fundamental interests, especially in the Middle East,” he told a regional security conference in Bahrain.
Asked about Iran, he said the United States was not seeking to oust the country’s leaders but did want to see a change in Iranian policies.
“Nobody is after a regime change in Iran. What we’re after is a change in policies and a change in behaviour,” Gates said.
“The president-elect and his team are under no illusions about Iran’s behaviour and what Iran has been doing in the region and is doing in terms of its own weapons programs.”
Many foreign policy experts, including vice-president elect Sen. Joe Biden, have suggested enemies of the United States will try to provoke a crisis early in Obama’s term while the new administration is still finding its feet.
Gates, who will stay on under Obama, said extensive planning has gone into preparing for the transition.
“Anyone who thought that the upcoming months might present opportunities to test the new administration would be sorely mistaken,” he told the Manama Dialogue conference, organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
“President Obama and his national security team, myself included, will be ready to defend the interests of the United States and our friends and allies from the moment he takes office on January 20th.”
Gates, a former CIA director, said the security of the Gulf had long been a central concern for Washington and he brought a message of continuity and commitment from Obama to US allies in the region.
He repeated longstanding appeals for Sunni Arab states to support Iraq’s US-backed government with full diplomatic relations and forgiveness of Saddam Hussein-era debts.
Sunni Arab powers have harboured deep reservations about the Baghdad government, believing it to be sectarian and too close politically to Shi’ite-dominated Iran.
Gates said Sunni states should welcome a chance to forge close relations with Iraq, partly to prevent Iran from doing so.
“There is no doubt that Iran has been heavily engaged in trying to influence the development and direction of the Iraqi government — and has not been a good neighbour,” he said.
“Iraq wants to be your partner,” he told his audience. “And, given the challenges in the Gulf, and the reality of Iran, you should wish to be theirs.”
Gates restated US complaints that Iran supports groups such as Hamas in the Palestinian territories and Hezbollah in Lebanon and said its nuclear program was “almost assuredly” meant to lead to atomic weapons — a charge Tehran disputes.
Debt
Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh reiterated on Saturday a call for Iraq’s creditors to cancel the foreign debt of the country that was accumulated by the former regime.
“Time has come to relieve Iraq from the burden of the debt inherited from Saddam Hussein’s regime,” Saleh told participants in the fifth Regional Security Summit, known as The Manama Dialogue.
Post-Saddam governments have all urged oil-rich Arab countries to cancel Iraq’s debt, mostly comprised of Gulf support to Iraq during its war with Iran in the 1980s, as other creditors agreed to cancel debt.
Baghdad said earlier this year that its debt stood at $140 billion excluding interest.
However, US Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt said in May that the figure was only $50 billion to $80 billion, with a “significant majority” owed to Arab countries, and nearly 10 billion to China.
According to the US State Department, Iraq’s debt has been reduced by $66.5 billion over the past three years, including a total of $42.3 billion cancelled by Paris Club members. In February, Russia forgave $12 billion, or 93 percent of the debt going back to the Soviet era. The United States has also cancelled 100 percent of Iraq’s debt to it of $4.1 billion while other Paris Club members agreed to cancel 80 percent of money owed to them. The United Arab Emirates in July agreed to write off seven billion dollars. Some $10 billion are owed to Saudi Arabia, and a little less to Kuwait.
