US panel urge talks with Iran, Syria on Iraq

Washington, Dec 7: The United States and other major countries should form an international support group to engage Iran and Syria in talks on resolving the crisis in Iraq, a panel of influential Washington insiders said.

The Iraq Study Group, headed by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Rep Lee Hamilton, acknowledged that proposing dialogue with two of America's adversaries was controversial.

But it insisted that ''a nation can and should engage its adversaries and enemies to try to resolve conflicts and differences consistent with its own interests.'' President George W Bush has agreed reluctantly to join Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China in a dialogue with Iran if Tehran first suspends uranium enrichment activities that Washington and its allies say are aimed at producing nuclear weapons.

But the 10-member panel said yesterday the international support group should hold talks ''without preconditions'' and focus on Iraq, leaving the nuclear issue in the hands of the UN Security Council.

The report accused Iran and Syria of stoking instability and violence in Iraq.

If the situation deteriorates, Iran might be provoked to ''send in troops to restore stability in southern Iraq and perhaps gain control of oil fields,'' the report said.

It argued that incentives that could draw Iran and Syria into dialogue with the international support group included a vested interest in an Iraq that does not disintegrate and destabilise the region and a continuing US role in preventing the Taliban from destabilizing Afghanistan.

Other incentives would be membership in international organizations like the World Trade Organization and the prospect for enhanced diplomatic relations with Washington, it said.

Baker said it was unlikely Iran would embrace talks with the United States but ''we also say we ought to put it to them, though, so that the world will see the rejectionist attitude that they are projecting by that action.'' As for Syria, he said, ''There's some strong indications that they would be in a position, if we were able to enter into a constructive dialogue with them, that they would be in a position to help us and might want to help us.''

Reuters