16 September 2008: Middle East Times
By Claude Salhani
Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari met with the Middle East Times and a handful of other correspondents last weekend on the sidelines of a conference on security and conflict in Geneva organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
We expected Zebari to make a major announcement, or at least say something of substance; it was he, after all, who called for the meeting. The meeting was cordial and pleasant, with the 18th floor conference room at the Geneva Intercontinental hotel offering a resplendent view of Lake Geneva with its landmark water spout and the postcard-like vista of the surrounding Alps. But during the 30 minutes or so the Iraqi foreign minister spent briefing us he divulged nothing that we really did not already know. As he was scheduled to be the keynote speaker the following morning at the IISS conference, he said he wanted to save the important points for his speech.
The Middle East Times attended the conference the following morning. But, again, he didn't say anything different from the previous night.
Coming from one of the top government ministers in a country that has been at war for the last five years, a country that has features on the front pages of most American newspapers almost every day for five years, the simple fact that its minister of foreign affairs fails to grab the headlines is of itself worthy of a headline. As the saying goes, no news is good news.
He did say that violence in Iraq was down by 80 percent. Now that is good news. However, neither Iraq nor the United States can afford to rest on their laurels. As Minister Zebari said, "We have turned a potentially huge corner. We have managed to pull ourselves from the brink. What we have now is fragile. What we do next is crucial." What Iraq does next is indeed crucial. So is what the U.S. does next.
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