Syria urges timeline in Iraq

Syria’s foreign minister called Sunday for a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, and his counterpart in Baghdad demanded that Damascus take action against insurgent financiers and organizers hiding there.

It was the highest-level meeting between the neighboring countries since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“We think that the presence of a timetable for withdrawal of foreign troops will assist in reducing the violence and creating security,” said Walid Moallem, the most senior Syrian official to visit Iraq since the war started.

President Bush has rejected proposed timelines to leave Iraq.

In a news conference in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, Moallem denied suggestions that Syria had been pressured by the U.S. to meet with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

The visit followed news reports that James A. Baker III, the co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan U.S. panel, had contacted Syrian officials for help in stopping the violence in Iraq.

In Washington, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Sunday reiterated his call for a short-term increase in troops for Iraq.

The Republican presidential hopeful told ABC’s “This Week” that the move might cause a “terrible strain” on the U.S. military, but said “there’s only one thing worse and that is defeat ... and we’ve been losing.”

McCain added that U.S. troops were “fighting and dying for a failed policy” and needed reinforcements to ensure victory.

“The consequences of failure are catastrophic,” he said. “It will spread to the region. You will see Iran more emboldened. Eventually, you could see Iran pose a greater threat to the state of Israel.”

The political developments came as violence continued across Iraq.

A Marine was killed in Al Anbar province Sunday, the U.S. military said. And Iraqi special forces today, aided by U.S. advisors, raided a Sadr City mosque compound thought to be harboring kidnappers, the military said. There were no casualties reported. Three people were arrested.

On Sunday, at least 45 bodies were discovered in various areas of Baghdad, and three explosions killed at least 11 people and injured 32 in the Baghdad neighborhood of Mashtal, where an Iraqi police colonel and his guard were slain earlier.

And in two separate kidnappings in the capital, Shiite Muslim Deputy Health Minister Ammar Safar and Sunni Arab criminal court Judge Mudhaffar Ubaidi disappeared Sunday.

Additional attacks occurred across Iraq.

In Hawija, 35 miles southwest of Kirkuk, insurgents put an explosive in a toy and left it near a house. The toy exploded when children approached, killing three and injuring at least one.

In the southern city of Hillah, at least 17 people were killed and 49 injured when a suicide bomber lured laborers into his minivan and detonated explosives.

Violence also hit Kirkuk, where a man set off his explosives belt during a funeral, killing three people and injuring at least 24.

“I was walking with my friends near the funeral and we felt a big explosion,” said Mustafa Iden, 33. “We rushed to the explosion site and saw bodies of people torn apart. There were body parts all over.”

There was still no word on the fate of five private security guards -- four Americans and one Austrian -- kidnapped Thursday in southern Iraq by gunmen in Iraqi police uniforms.

In Washington, Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he planned to introduce legislation that would reinstate the military draft, which was eliminated in 1973 near the end of the Vietnam War.

And former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, in a British Broadcasting Corp. television interview broadcast Sunday, said that “a clear military victory” was no longer possible in Iraq.

“If you mean by clear military victory an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control in a time period that the political processes of the democracies will support, I don’t believe that is possible,” Kissinger said.

With the ongoing violence in Iraq, Washington is considering a diplomatic push for greater cooperation with Iraq’s neighbors, including Syria and Iran.

U.S. and Iraqi leaders say Syria and Iran have undermined security in Iraq by allowing the cross-border flow of weapons and militants.

“There is even money smuggled by the families of the former regime in Syria,” said Ali Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman. “These are unimaginable sums and they are being used to fund terrorism in Iraq. These activities are clear and evident in Syria, and they are countenanced by the government.”

Zebari said that he discussed with Moallem the possibility of reestablishing full diplomatic relations and that he looked forward to meeting again.

Zebari also said that he hoped the meeting would create regional momentum to help Iraq establish greater security.

“We don’t expect to solve all of our problems at one time or with one visit,” he said. “We wanted to make a starting point to open the way in solving all our disputes in good faith.

“This visit will send a good message to all the regional players that they should seriously support Iraq’s security and stability.”

moore1@latimes.com

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Times staff writer Richard Simon in Washington and correspondents in Baghdad, Hillah and Kirkuk contributed to this report.