Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari urged Iraq’s neighbors yesterday to prevent “terrorists and killers” from crossing into his country and warned that the violence in Iraq could spill across its borders into other nations.
| Being Arabs, they can't think far enough ahead to guess that Iraq - always a regional power - won't always be in its present state. Ask Tiglath Pileser. |
ZebariÂ’s comments came during the opening of a daylong conference that brought to Baghdad officials from all of IraqÂ’s neighbors and other Middle Eastern countries, as well as representatives from the United Nations and the Group of Eight industrialized nations.
It picked up from the first such conference in March, which saw the first direct US-Iranian talks since the war began, focusing on border problems, Iraqi refugees and energy issues, including oil supplies. “Despite our emphasis on national reconciliation at home we also need to reconcile with our neighbors, with the international community at large,” Zebari told the group. “And this is critical period for us that we need your support and your commitment especially for our immediate neighbors.” |