Word: rice
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Secretary Rice, the Bush administration, our NATO allies, have declined to speed up the process of giving membership to Georgia. Is that a good idea or is that a sign of fear about alienating Russia...
During a surprise visit to Baghdad last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sidestepped the question of whether the U.S. was considering an end to the immunity from prosecution enjoyed by U.S. troops in Iraq. "I'm not going to go into, obviously, the details of our negotiations," said Rice, who spoke to reporters alongside Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari amid intensive negotiations over a long-term security pact. "We are working together as partners to make certain that we cover the concerns of both parties for sovereignty for the Iraqi Government," Rice added. "And so everything that we will...
Exemption from prosecution for U.S. soldiers abroad has a long precedent in American policy and politics, as Rice noted. For decades the Pentagon has insisted that the military's own internal judicial system is the only place U.S. troops should be tried for alleged crimes while serving overseas. While that is a politically popular stance in the U.S., it been the source of tensions at times with allies such as Japan, Italy and South Korea that host large numbers of U.S. troops. In each of those countries U.S. troops over the years have been implicated in alleged crimes ranging from...
Zebari, like Rice, avoided spelling out the latest thinking among negotiators on the question of immunity, saying "this issue, as you know, is also a sensitive issue that deals with sovereignty." But the Iraqi foreign minister made clear he at least thinks new rules will apply in the coming Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, which U.S. and Iraqi negotiators hope to complete before the end of the year. "What we have accomplished in this agreement is the most advanced version of any SOFA or strategic agreement between the United States and any other country in the world." Whether...
...Despite Zebari's confidence, the extent to which al-Maliki will manage to roll back the Bush Administration on the security deal remains unclear. Both Rice and Zebari say a final agreement is close, and each side seems eager to finalize the agreement before the current U.N. mandate for the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq expires at the end of 2008. Still, among the various parties to the talks, al-Maliki now appears to be the one controlling the clock...