A high level meeting of foreign officials of Iraq’s neighbors including Syria and Iran takes place in Baghdad on Saturday to discuss and find ways chiefly to stop the sectarian fighting in Iraq and prevent it from spreading to the other countries in the oil-rich region.
The conference brings together the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - the five permanent members of the Security Council, and Arab countries. This is the largest meeting of countries in Baghdad since 1990, said an elated Iraqi foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari.
America does not have diplomatic relations with Iran, while its ambassador to Syria was withdrawn in early 2005 and high level contacts between the two countries are absent since then.
The main concern of the US is stopping any aid to both the Sunni and Shia militias inside Iraq from Iran and Syria. The USA has accused these two countries of fuelling the sectarian strife by supporting either Shiite militias or Sunni insurgents.
The US is also eager to see that the Iraqi government is supported by its neighbors. Bush has clearly sent this message to the meeting when he said ‘we expect you (Syria and Iran) to help this young democracy’.
The meeting provides an opportunity to Iraq’s neighbors to evolve an understanding among them and act accordingly in matters related to Iraq.
