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Rice refuses to give Iraq timetable
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-19 00:20

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice told senators on Tuesday that a U.S. exit strategy from Iraq is "directly proportional" to Iraq's ability to defend itself against terrorists after this month's elections.

U.S. Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice is sworn in at her U.S. Senate confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 18, 2005. [Reuters]

Stepping out from her largely behind-the-scenes role as President Bush's national security adviser, Rice said she could not give Congress a timetable for American disengagement.

"The goal is to get the mission accomplished," she said. "We're right now focused on security for the (Jan. 30) election."

Rice told her Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing that spreading democracy through the Middle East remains a top administration foreign-policy objective.

The Palestinian election earlier this month following the death of Yasser Arafat offers "a moment of opportunity," she said. But Rice also said Palestinian leaders need to do more to end acts of terrorism against Israel, saying peace hopes will be dashed if such violence continues.

She raised the possibility that Bush might name an envoy to the Palestinians, but said timing was an issue. "No one has objections in principle" to such an envoy, she said, but Rice added that "it is a question over whether that is appropriate" at this time.

Rice pledged Tuesday to work to mend and strengthen ties with allies frayed by Iraq. "The time for diplomacy is now," she told senators at her hearing to replace Colin Powell as secretary of state.

"The time for diplomacy is long overdue," retorted Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He told her the United States is "paying a heavy price" for the administration's policy in Iraq.

Despite pointed questioning from Biden and other committee Democrats, Senate confirmation of Rice — Bush's most trusted foreign policy confidante — was all but assured.

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