Rice refuses to pin down Iraq withdrawal date
US Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice told senators today that a US exit strategy from Iraq is “directly proportional” to Iraq’s ability to defend itself against terrorists after this month’s elections.
Stepping out from her largely behind-the-scenes role as President George Bush’s national security adviser, Rice said she could not give Congress a timetable for American disengagement.
“The goal is to get the mission accomplished,” she said. ”We’re right now focused on security for the election.”
Rice told her Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing that spreading democracy through the Middle East remains a top administration foreign-policy objective.
The Palestinian election earlier this month following the death of Yasser Arafat offers “a moment of opportunity,” she said. But Rice also said Palestinian leaders need to do more to end acts of terrorism against Israel, saying peace hopes will be dashed if such violence continues.
She raised the possibility that Bush might name an envoy to the Palestinians, but said timing was an issue. “No one has objections in principle” to such an envoy, she said, but Rice added that “it is a question over whether that is appropriate” at this time.
Rice pledged to work to mend and strengthen ties with allies frayed by Iraq. “The time for diplomacy is now,” she told senators at her hearing to replace Colin Powell as Secretary of State.
“The time for diplomacy is long overdue,” retorted Joseph Biden, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He told her the United States is ”paying a heavy price” for the administration’s policy in Iraq.
Despite pointed questioning from Biden and other committee Democrats, Senate confirmation of Rice – Bush’s most trusted foreign policy confidante – was all but assured.
Rice insisted that the administration’s actions in the aftermath of the 9/11 2001 terror attacks – including wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – were “difficult, and necessary and right.”
Senator John Kerry, the unsuccessful 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, challenged Rice’s claim that the right number of troops were in Iraq and criticised the administration’s post-war policies.
“We do have some big tactical challenges to get to the strategic goals that we have,” she replied. The course of US policy on Iraq “was always going to have ups and downs,” Rice said.
If confirmed, Rice would be the first black woman, and only the second woman after Madeleine Albright, to be America’s top diplomat.
