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To: DoctorZIn
British Overtures to Iran Set Allies at Odds

April 14, 2004
The Telegraph
Alec Russell in Washington

British officials in Iraq have all but ignored President George Bush's plan to foster a new democracy in the country in favour of their own agenda, according to an American former official in Baghdad's interim government.

His comments mark the first time an official has publicly let the mask of co-operation between the White House and Whitehall slip.

They also highlight the difficulties facing Tony Blair at his meeting with Mr Bush tomorrow when the two leaders will try to plot the transition to full Iraqi sovereignty, which is due in 11 weeks.

Michael Rubin, who resigned from the Pentagon 10 days ago after returning from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Baghdad, gave a stark account of fundamental divisions between British and American officials over how to run Iraq.

He suggested that British officials clearly had little interest in pursuing the White House vision of a democratic Iraq, a keystone of its foreign policy, and were too "soft" in confronting dissent.

He also said many US officials had been startled at their British counterparts' attempts to capitalise on their presence in southern Iraq for a "freelance" fostering of ties with Iran, one of Washington's most implacable enemies.

"That is a major policy decision for the White House," Mr Rubin said. "It should not be made in Basra" - the centre of the British zone of influence. "We got a sense that Britons were using the CPA as an outreach to Iran, which was not the Americans' intention."

Tensions between British and US officials have long been hinted at, not least between Paul Bremer, the US proconsul, and Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Britain's former envoy to Baghdad who left - apparently in some frustration - last month.

One provisional authority insider said: "There was an understanding in the CPA that Bremer and Greenstock didn't like each other. It personified the differences between the two views. Greenstock thought Bremer was naive; Bremer thought Greenstock was pursuing the wrong policies."

Mr Rubin did not comment directly on relations between the two men. "Bremer is following the President's agenda. And, in general, most British diplomats still don't agree with the President's agenda."

Mr Rubin was an adviser on the governance group of the provisional authority until March. He is now an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank and arguably the ideological engine room of Mr Bush's Administration.

He said he and other US officials had been deeply concerned by the softly-softly approach of the British to former Baathists, who Washington felt should be excluded from positions of authority, and also to Iranian groups.

"When I came in to Iraq back in July . . . it was clear that the US was serious about democracy, the Brits less so."

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/14/1081838801664.html
3 posted on 04/14/2004 9:52:08 PM PDT by DoctorZIn (Until they are Free, "We shall all be Iranians!")
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To: knighthawk; McGavin999; SJackson; tet68; Eala; Stultis; river rat; risk; F14 Pilot; DoctorZIn; ...

Second Place, Pictures of the Year International
Newsha Tavakolian U.S. News & World Report

"Tehran Pool Party" Rabei looks out the window at her grandchildren relaxing by the pool, in a trendy Tehran suburb, during a hot summer day. Much of the population of Iran is under thirty without much memory of life before the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
33 posted on 04/15/2004 6:05:20 PM PDT by freedom44
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