House Republicans push for Iraq diplomacy

Two House Republicans, both 2008 Democratic targets, are urging President Bush to step up diplomatic efforts to quell internal fighting in Iraq.

{mosads}Noting that “current Iraqi efforts at national reconciliation have stalled,” Reps. Heather Wilson (N.M.) and Phil English (Pa.) said in a letter to Bush that such an initiative could be modeled after peace conferences that brought together Israel and Egypt at Camp David in 1978 and warring Balkan factions in Dayton, Ohio, in 1995.

English said the letter is meant to show the president “how strongly some of us in the House feel that a new diplomatic initiative is needed at the highest level to head off further sectarian violence in Iraq and avoid a collapse of order.”

The lawmaker added that he believes the Dayton Accords are an example of “a path toward a workable resolution.”

English and Wilson advocate holding such a peace conference in a relatively secluded place that is away from “the world press, regional pressure groups and other external pressures that could impede compromise and conciliation.”

Wilson said the U.S. “cannot do for the Iraqis what they will not do for themselves, but we can bring the various factions to the table in a way we haven’t tried yet.” The two lawmakers stressed that the administration should make clear to Baghdad that “its continued financial and military support for Iraq depends on their leaders’ willingness to participate in this conference and their ability to reach agreement.”