Rice: Surge helped root lasting Iraq ties

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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, and Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari shake hands at a joint press conference in Baghdad on Jan. 15. Rice said during a surprise trip to Iraq that national reconciliation has moved along "quite remarkably," citing a new law that lets former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party to reclaim government jobs or pensions.


Rice: Surge helped root lasting Iraq ties
By Matthew Cox - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jan 15, 2008 15:19:16 EST

BAGHDAD — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Iraqi foreign minister on Tuesday credited the recent surge of U.S. ground forces here with securing a framework for a “long-term relationship” between America, Iraq and neighboring Arab states.

“This is a time of hope,” Rice told a roomful of journalists during a press conference here at the Combined Press Information Center.

Rice’s stop in Baghdad is part of President Bush’s tour of the region. She said the continuing progress of U.S. forces working with their Iraqi counterparts will grow into regional cooperation that goes beyond the current focus on security.

“It’s not just a security relationship,” she said. “It’s an economic relationship; it’s a political relationship.”

Rice conceded that the political progress “hasn’t always moved as fast as some of us in Washington would have liked.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/army_iraq_rice_080115/