WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that the United States would join high-level talks on Iraq with the country's neighbors, including Iran and Syria, in a move that may signal a new U.S. willingness to expand diplomacy with two adversaries.
U.S. officials said the negotiations could open the way to a broader dialogue with two nations the Bush administration has refused to meet one-on-one except under limited circumstances, but they also gave carefully couched responses to questions about how far Washington would be willing to go.
Asked about the U.S. refusal to negotiate with Iran about its nuclear program unless Tehran first suspends uranium enrichment, Sean McCormack, the chief State Department spokesman, told reporters, "Those conditions remain."
At the same time, he and others appeared to be trying to leave open the door to talks on other subjects of mutual interest. "I'm not going to try to predict what the course of those diplomatic interactions might be," McCormack said.
Another U.S. official said that though it seemed unlikely that bilateral talks would grow out of the meetings, "we're not going to rule anything out."
"Our diplomats need a certain amount of flexibility to do their work," said the official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issues.
Administration officials do not want to cede any diplomatic advantage to Syria and Iran through talks, but they say they believe the two countries are in a position to help the beleaguered Baghdad government. They also may have concluded that appearing more enthusiastic about such diplomacy could ease criticism from the Democrats who control Congress.
Rice announced the U.S. participation in the talks while appearing before a Senate committee, and described it as part of a new "diplomatic offensive." She noted that many lawmakers and the advisory study group headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.) had urged a regional approach to dealing with Iraq's problems.
"This is one of the key findings, of course, of the Iraq Study Group, and it is an important dimension that many in the ... Congress have brought to our attention," Rice said. "We've listened, and I want you to know that."
