Rice calls for unity during surprise visit to Iraq

? Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came to Iraq to call for unity and support for the democratic process. Yet the secrecy and heavy security surrounding her visit spoke volumes about how far the country must go on its road to normalcy.

Rice departed from her announced schedule on a trip to the Middle East and flew to Iraq on Friday. As has become customary for U.S. officials, Rice entered Baghdad by helicopter, not by car along an airport road notorious for insurgent attacks.

“We do support the principles of democracy and support efforts to bridge the differences among Iraqis,” Rice said following a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

The secretary also met with Sunni Arab and other leaders in the ethnically split northern city of Mosul. About 60 percent of the population there are Sunnis, who were politically dominant under Saddam Hussein and remain among the strongest opponents of Iraq’s recently approved constitution.

After that session, Rice resorted to somewhat ominous tones to stress that political success in Iraq is in everyone’s interest.

“If Iraq does not succeed, and if Iraq becomes a place of despair, generations of Americans would also be condemned to fear,” Rice said after meeting with local politicians. “So our fates and our futures are very much linked.”

Despite the long-standing Sunni opposition, Rice appealed to them to participate in new elections in December.

Divisions “may be differences of history or tradition, culture or ethnicity, but in a democratic process these differences can be a strength rather than a handicap,” Rice said.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, right, arrives Friday in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

She also met behind closed doors in Baghdad with several prominent Sunni Arab leaders, including tribal leader and Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer.

Sectarian and ethnic rivalries fuel the daily bloodshed in Iraq, and U.S. and Iraqi officials blame Sunnis for most of that violence. However, foreign fighters crossing into Iraq from Syria and elsewhere are apparently responsible for some of the deadliest suicide attacks.

Elections set for Dec. 15 for a permanent government are the latest test of Iraq’s new representative system – and another marker toward the day when U.S. forces and advisers may be able to quit the country.

The Bush administration has refused to set a timetable for withdrawing, even as the third anniversary of the ouster of Saddam Hussein approaches and U.S. public support for the war drops.

“We will continue to assist the Iraqi people as long as the Iraqi people need and want the support,” Rice said.

Rice said Sunni participation in the referendum is encouraging, even if they showed up only to vote against the charter.

The rest of Rice’s itinerary this week includes stops in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the West Bank.

Rice will add a short visit to Jordan before leaving the region Monday, to show solidarity with a U.S. ally after terror bombings Wednesday killed 57 people, including three Americans. Rice will meet with King Abdullah, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

The U.S. military said Friday that three American troops had been killed in western Iraq. Their deaths brought The Associated Press count of U.S. service members killed in Iraq since the war began to 2,059.

Arab diplomats have been particular targets for insurgents. On Friday, gunmen opened fire on the Oman Embassy compound, killing two people and wounding two others, police and hospital officials said.

Al-Qaida’s branch in Iraq said it had abducted two Moroccan embassy employees who went missing this week. In July the same group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and killing of two Algerian diplomats and the Egyptian charge d’affaires in Baghdad.

“I hope that the Arab states will support Iraq and condemn the terrorism that is killing innocent Iraqis, and establish diplomatic relations here with embassies and ambassadors,” Rice said. “There are many embassies and ambassadors here but not enough from the Arab world.”

The Arab League invited politicians from Iraq’s Shiite, Kurdish, Sunni and other factions to a preparatory meeting in Cairo on Nov. 19 and a larger conference sometime later.

Some Shiites have said they will boycott if members of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime or political base are included, and there are other controversies about who should attend.

Rice said overtures for unity should be Iraq’s to make.

“I would hope that those who participate in the Arab League conference would recognize they are participating with an Iraqi government that has been elected,” Rice said. “The lead on this really ought to be the Iraqi government.”