U.S. Assuring Arab States It Will Remain a Force in Mideast Post-Iraq
by Bernard Gwertzman from The Council on Foreign Relations
TAMARA COFMAN WITTES: (Senior Fellow, Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings Institution) "The Arab states—and especially Saudi Arabia—have been ambivalent about the survival of this Iraqi government, and somewhat reluctant to push their Sunni allies in Baghdad to come to terms with the Shiite factions on major issues. However well the military strategy might be going in Iraq right now with the surge, if the political strategy doesn’t succeed, the military accomplishments are going to dissipate very quickly. So the core concern for Secretary Rice right now is to get Arab states to weigh in as much as possible with the Sunni factions in Iraq and get them to stay at the table to make decisions on core issues like constitutional reform, oil revenue sharing, and the other things that have been sticking points in stabilizing the central government.