Khalilzad will measure success "on the ground" (Extra)

Mar 11, 2007, 1:07 GMT

Baghdad/Washington - The success of Saturday's landmark international meeting to discuss Iraq's future security can only be measured by events 'on the ground,' US Ambassador to Baghdad Zalmay Khalilzad said.

In a telephone news conference after the 10-hour meeting of Iraq's neighbours and major United Nations powers, Kahlilzad termed the atmosphere as 'constructive and business-like,' but said the United States and Iraq had made it clear that the movement of foreign fighters and munitions from Iran and Syria must stop for national reconciliation within Iraq to be possible.

'We will have to wait and see what happens on the ground, whether they stop shipping the EFPs (explosively formed penetrators) ... and stop financial support and training for the militias,' Khalilzad said.

The US has charged that Iran produces the EFPs for use in roadside bombs that target civilians and US and Iraqi forces alike. On Saturday alone, at least 20 people were killed in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, and mortars fell close to the Foreign Ministry headquarters where the leaders of 13 countries and three international organizations were meeting.

A key focus of international interest was the possibility that the United States would have direct contact with Iran and Syria.

Khalilzad described in detail how he was introduced by Iraqi Prime Minsiter Nuri al-Maliki's national security advisor to the Iranian delegates, with whom he 'walked together and exchanged pleasantries' as they waited for the conference to begin. There was more contact 'upstairs' during small, group discussions.

Conversations with the Syrians were 'longer than with the Iranians by a couple of minutes,' Khalilzad said, but there were no private bilateral talks with either country.

'They are willing to be engaged bilaterally as well as multilaterally,' Khalilzad said. He said the Syrians 'even offered bridging formulas for narrowing differences between various parties.'

The US-led invasion of Iraq four years ago provoked insurgency by Sunni militants, some of whom were angered by the ouster of Saddam Hussein, who had kept the Shiite majority largely out of government for decades.

Now, Maliki's Shiite-dominated government is fighting infiltration by foreign guerrillas and terrorists and escalating violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Iraq and Iran are the bastions of the Shiite branch of Islam, while most of the rest of the Middle East is dominated by Sunnis.

Khalilzad said he was 'cautious about exaggerating' the impact of the meeting, 'but what has happened cannot be dismissed. It was a good meeting.'

'The overall mood was business-like and constructive. ... Nobody was pounding the tables. The exchanges were quite ordinary (with) frank and sometimes jovial exchanges,' he said.

The conference - the first such major gathering in Iraq - included representatives of the United Nations, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Conference, as well as diplomats from Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey. The five veto-wielding UN Security Council permanent members - the US, Britain, France, China and Russia - were also represented.

The group agreed to raise the next meeting, possibly in April, to a ministerial gathering, meaning that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice could 'meet across the tables' with ministers from Syria and Iran, Khalilzad said.

The next venue was left open, to be decided among the ministers, but it most likely will not be in Baghdad, the ambassador indicated.

Turkey offered to host the gathering in Istanbul, and Cairo was also discussed. The G8 group of dominant world economic powers - which includes Germany, Japan, Canada and Italy - 'have shown interest in joining' the next discussions, Khalilzad said.

Working groups for three areas - border security, energy and electricity, and refugees - were to be formed, the representatives agreed. Most of the differences at the conference centred on when and how those groups are to be set up, and what countries should be included.

Iran complained that the US was holding a handful of its diplomats, suspected by Iraq and the US of being intelligence agents helping the inflow of weapons and militia into Iraq.

'We responded that the people we are holding have not been established to be diplomats by the Iraqis or by us,' Khalilzad said.