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Rice: We don`t need Iran and Syria

Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice rejected the Baker-Hamilton report`s recommendations that the United Sates should hold direct negotiations with Iran and Syria, Thursday. Rice said that dialog with these countries would require the US pay to high a price and that the two countries are required to help stabilizing Iraq even without being given incentives. "If they have an interest in a stable Iraq, they will do it anyway," Rice said in an interview she gave the Washington Post. She said that the US doesn`t intended to persist its demands that Syria stop its involvement in Lebanon or Iran discontinue its development of nuclear weapons, even for peace in Iraq.

Rice said that the administration will not go back on its attempts at spreading democracy throughout the Middle East, an objective found in the recommendations of the special committee appointed by President Bush to find possible solutions to the condition in Iraq. Rice said she intends to visit the Middle East frequently.In an interview with Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte to the Washington Post, Negroponte said that the Baker-Hamilton report`s evaluation of the situation in Iraq was credible. He added that the armed militias operating in Iraq self-funded their operations with money from corruption, oil smuggling and kidnappings.

Rice`s interview indicates that the criticism the government drew from experts regarding the war in Iraq will not affect the administration substantially and that the government doesn`t intended to make any drastic changes in policy regarding the situation in Iraq. Rice said that President Bush does intend to make changes in policy but that he will not change his long term goals or his commitment to the people of Iraq.