Aides discuss Middle East

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt –\n President Bush’s top national security aides said Tuesday their double-barreled show of diplomatic and military support for friendly Arab allies this week is not a shot across Iran’s bow.\n“We are out here to talk about the long term,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, as he and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began two days of meetings among Persian Gulf allies and Egypt. Gates noted that U.S. relationships in the Gulf and beyond predate the current unease over Iran’s ambitions and influence.\nIf Iran perceives the joint visit and U.S. overtures differently, “that’s in the eye of the beholder,” Gates said.\nThe Cabinet secretaries also said during a joint press conference in this Red Sea resort that they heard worries from Arab allies about the future of the U.S. military presence in Iraq.\n“There clearly is concern on the part of the Egyptians, and I think it probably represents concern elsewhere in the region, that the United States will somehow withdraw precipitously from Iraq, or in some way that is destabilizing to the entire region,” Gates told reporters after he and Rice wrapped up meetings with Egypt’s top leaders.\nHe pledged “understanding that this needs to be done carefully and not leave Iraq in chaos.”\nGates and Rice later traveled to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah and other leaders.\nThe United States won no specific new promises of Arab help for struggling Iraq on Tuesday, but Rice said she heard the right expressions of support after a gathering of several nations listed as recipients of an expanded aid and weapons package for friendly states in the region.\nIraq’s Arab neighbors repeated a general pledge to promote stability in Iraq, torn by more than four years of war and bitter sectarian divisions that have killed thousands and driven far more from their homes.\n“I think we know what the obligations of the neighbors are,” Rice said, adding that Egypt and other U.S. allies are working to meet past promises of relief of Iraq’s heavy international debt, additional foreign aid and help tamping down violence inside Iraq.\nRice and Gates were making a rare joint show of diplomatic force during two days of meetings with Arab allies. The tour also opens talks on a proposed U.S. arms package for Arab states worth more than $20 billion.\nAt a press conference with her Egyptian host, Rice pointed to no fresh commitments from the Arabs. A statement issued following a nine-nation meeting promised only “to continue to support Iraq and expand their financial and political support,” and restated a general commitment to blocking would-be terrorists and financing that supports them from entering Iraq.\n“The ... commitment was always to help a united Iraq to reach that point of full stability, and that we have been trying to do over the last four years,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said following the joint meeting.\nBush’s top diplomatic and military managers have a tough assignment to convince skeptical, mostly Sunni-led Arab nations that they have more to lose if Iraq fails than they stand to gain by waiting until the U.S. leaves or Bush’s term ends.\nThe Cabinet secretaries are also trying to solidify what the U.S. sees as a bulwark of generally moderate Arab states against an increasingly ambitious and unpredictable Iran.\n“We have also been calling for the noninterference of any foreign powers into Iraq,” Aboul Gheit said. “That is something we would renew.”