U.S. may embrace Iraq diplomacy critics long demanded

By Arshad Mohammed - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - By opening the door to a high-level dialogue with Iran and Syria, the United States appears to be embracing a diplomatic strategy that its critics have long said was essential to stabilize Iraq.

The move follows more aggressive U.S. diplomacy with North Korea to end its nuclear weapons programs and a new U.S. push on Israeli-Palestinian peace after years of being accused of relative neglect.

"I think that it's an acknowledgment of reality. It's in effect a move toward a foreign policy less based on ideal outcomes and more based on realistic possibility," said James Dobbins of the Rand Corporation, a former top U.S. diplomat.

"It's long been the view of most area experts that one isn't going to be able to stabilize Iraq unless one secures a modicum of support from the neighboring states," Dobbins added. "They simply have too much access, too much influence and too much at stake themselves in Iraq's future to be ignored."

In a surprise move, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday used testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee to announce that the United States would attend two Iraqi-convened conferences on how to stabilize the country.

The first meeting will bring together working-level officials in Baghdad on March 10 and the second, involving ministers, may be held as early as April. A U.S. official said this meeting could take place in Istanbul.

Syria's official news agency has said it will attend the March meeting while Iran is considering the invitation.

While the State Department and White House denied they had changed policy, the decision marked a shift from months during which the Bush administration had been cool to the idea of more direct, high-level engagement with Iran and Syria.