Press release:
John Kerry on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Plans for a Regional Summit
Today, President Nouri al-Maliki called for a regional conference to discuss Iraq’s future and quell the sectarian violence that has torn the country apart. The current Department of Defense Authorization bill passed by Congress includes a Kerry amendment which calls on the President to work with Iraqi leaders to convene this type of summit. Kerry applauds this development in Iraq’s escalating civil war.
Kerry first suggested a regional conference two-and-a-half years ago, and formally proposed a Dayton-like summit in the Senate several times this year. The Senate passed Kerry’s amendment to the DoD Authorization bill calling for this summit on June 22, 2006, and the full Congress approved the measure on September 30, 2006.
As Kerry said on CNN last Sunday, “It will take a lot of groundwork. You'll have to lay the groundwork. You can't just suddenly call a summit. You have to put the pieces together. But the bottom line is, the surrounding countries, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Gulf states, Egypt, et cetera, are Sunni. They have an interest in not having an Iraq that comes apart. They have an interest in not having a regional civil war. They have an interest in not having Sunnis brothers and sisters murdered, killed in a genocide. So, those stakeholders have to be brought to the table.”
Below is Kerry’s statement on al-Maliki’s announcement:
“Prime Minister al-Maliki’s decision to call for a regional conference for Iraq is an extremely important development. It comes at a critical moment, as Robert Gates has just testified that we are not winning in Iraq. This long overdue diplomatic initiative can be an important first step in a change of course. It is essential to bring Iraq’s neighbors together with the international community to forge the sustainable political solution that we all agree is the only hope for ending the violence in Iraq. There’s no military solution in Iraq. The only answer is a diplomatic and political solution. We must now work with the Iraqi Prime Minister to make sure that this conference is as successful as possible, which will require a long overdue commitment to a sustained diplomacy from the highest levels of the Administration.”
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