US to maintain long stay in Gulf: Gates
Middle East Desk Report

BAGHDAD—An increased U.S. naval presence in the Gulf is not a response to any action by Iran but a message to all countries that the United States will keep its regional footprint “for a long time,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday.
CBS News reported on Monday that a projected naval buildup was intended to discourage what U.S. officials view as increasingly provocative acts by Tehran pressing for a nuclear program and support for Shi’ite militias in Iraq. “I don’t think it’s a response to anything anyone else has done,” Gates told reporters during a three-day visit to Iraq.
“I think the message that we are sending to everyone, not just Iran, is that the United States is an enduring presence in this part of the world. We have been here for a long time. We will be here for a long time and everybody needs to remember that - both our friends and those who might consider themselves our adversaries,” he said. The U.S. command responsible for Middle East operations has asked the Pentagon to add a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf region as a warning to Syria and Iran and to help it carry out other operations, according to a senior defense official.
The war-fighting Central Command wants the carrier strike group and its warplanes by end-March for “deterrence” and to increase “flexibility,” including for potential noncombat operations, said the official who asked not be to be named. Gates on Friday acknowledged the increased U.S. presence in the Gulf.
“There has been an increase in naval strength in the Gulf in the past several weeks,” he said. But the new defense secretary, who replaced Donald Rumsfeld on Monday, said he did not know if United States would send another carrier to the Gulf.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told The Associated Press on Thursday that Iraq was “worth the investment” in American lives and dollars and said the U.S. can still win a conflict that has been more difficult than she expected. “I don’t think it’s a matter of money,” Rice said. “Along the way there have been plenty of markers that show that this is a country that is worth the investment, because once it emerges as a country that is a stabilizing factor you will have a very different kind of Middle East.”
Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrapped up his trip to Iraq, saying he hopes to give a report to President Bush this weekend on what he learned during his three days of meetings with military and political leaders here. Gates declined to say whether he plans to recommend a short-term increase in U.S. troop levels. But he said he believes the U.S. and Iraqis have “a broad strategic agreement between the Iraqi military and Iraqi government and our military.”
Bush is considering whether to quickly send thousands of additional U.S. troops to the country to control the violence. There are 140,000 American troops in Iraq. One U.S. soldier died and another was wounded Friday when their patrol came under fire, the military said in a statement. On Thursday, three Marines and one U.S. sailor died from wounds sustained in combat in western Anbar province, the military said.
On the Iraqi side, officials close to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said the militia leader has agreed to allow supporters to rejoin the Iraqi government after a three-week boycott, even as political rivals pushed to form a coalition without him.It was unclear whether a new coalition taking shape among Shiites, Kurds and one Sunni party would be able to govern effectively without the backing of al-Sadr’s 30 loyalists in the 275-member parliament, and his six ministers in the 38-member Cabinet.
The cleric’s followers had boycotted politics to protest the prime minister’s recent meeting with Bush, but appear to have decided to go back to parliament to strengthen their bargaining power — backed up by a militia army — and avoid political isolation. Shiites from parliament’s largest bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance, met Thursday in the holy city of Najaf to seek approval for a coalition that crosses sectarian lines from the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a revered cleric who holds sway over many Iraqi Shiites and is said to be alarmed at the sectarian bloodshed sweeping swathes of the country.
“The al-Sadr movement will return to the government and parliament,” said Abdul Karim al-Anizi, a Shiite lawmaker from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Dawa faction, which had relied on al-Sadr for political support. The walkout by al-Sadr’s supporters had prevented the government from passing laws, contributing to a sense of political crisis alongside a deteriorating security situation.