Leon Panetta in Israel: Will his urgent messages bring action? (The Christian Science Monitor)

Washington – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, traveling at a time of what some analysts say are profound and lasting changes in the US-Israel relationship, is carrying a couple of high-priority messages to America’s closest ally in the Middle East.

On his first visit to Israel as Pentagon chief, Secretary Panetta’s first order of business appeared to be to air US concerns about Israel’s growing isolation from its neighbors – some of whom are also critical partners of the US.

In meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Secretary Panetta is sharing his concern that Israel is endangering its own security with the recent deterioration in its relations with neighbors like Egypt and Turkey.

RELATED: Top 5 issues on the table for Israeli-Palestinian talks

Panetta is carrying another message from the White House to his Israeli interlocutors: Find a way to resume peace talks with the Palestinians.

a€?Panetta is carrying water for the White House with this message that the Israelis need to re-engage in the peace process,a€

The US desire to see peace talks under way once again has more to do with US relations with the region than with any strong prospects for the Israelis and Palestinians to actually make progress towards a peace accord, Mr. Phillips says.

“Every White House wants something going because it’s easier for the US to operate in the Arab and Muslim worlds when there’s a peace process,” he says. “This administration is no different in wanting the Israelis and Palestinians to get up on the two-seat bicycle, even if everybody knows there’s no chance of a comprehensive settlement any time soon.”

Panetta is also scheduled to meet in the West Bank with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minster Salam Fayyad.

Panetta’s visit to Israel, part of a swing through the Middle East before he attends a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels, comes just six months after former Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a similar trip. Mr. Gates was the first US defense secretary to visit Palestinian leaders in the West Bank.

But Gates was also reported (by Bloomberg’s Jeff Goldberg) to have told a summer national security session at the White House shortly before he stepped down that Israel is an “ungrateful ally” that has given the US little or nothing – particularly concerning the peace process – in return for America’s rock solid security guarantees.

Gates also reportedly said that Mr. Netanyahu was endangering Israel’s security by failing to address his country’s deteriorating regional relationships.

In that sense Panetta’s warnings of Israel’s growing “isolation” may have a worrisome echo for the Israeli officials he meets.

Some analysts, like Heritage’s Phillips, are of the view that US-Israel military-to-military relations are stronger than ever, and that any flat notes should be heard as reflecting diplomatic differences between the two countries.

Noting that Panetta publicly made his “isolation” comment before arriving in Israel, Phillips says it could be the US defense secretary wanted to “put that particular US concern out there” before his military meetings. “Maybe that’s a message that’s really better for the politicians,” he says.

But others say there is no getting around the fact that the US-Israel strategic partnership is changing a€“ and that recent turbulence in the relationship reflects not only a changing region but a€“ to some degree and on some issues a€“ diverging national interests.

In a new study analyzing the US-Israel partnership entitled “Crossroads,” Haim Malka of Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies concludes that “rising tensions in the bilateral relationship” reflect one key reality: “The US and Israel have changed and continue to change, but the two countries’ relationship has not kept pace.”

For one thing, the US must treat Israel less as a dependent, Mr. Malka says. And perhaps with something of an echo of Robert Gates, Malka concludes that the US and Israel must develop a relationship “that contains clearer commitments of what each side will do for the other – with an implicit understanding that there are limits to those commitments.”

RELATED: Top 5 issues on the table for Israeli-Palestinian talks

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Panetta in Iraq to see officials, commanders (AP)

By ROBERT BURNS, AP National Security Writer Robert Burns, Ap National Security Writer – 1?hr?51?mins?ago

BAGHDAD – From one war front to another Sunday, Pentagon chief Leon Panetta hopped from a U.S. outpost in Afghanistan's southern desert to Baghdad, where he sought to encourage Iraqi leaders to decide soon whether they want a residual American military force beyond year's end.

He refused to say whether the Obama administration wants the extension, but he expressed concern at a spike in U.S. deaths caused by what American officials believe are sophisticated explosive devices made in Iran.

Panetta prepared for talks Monday with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other senior members of a government politically divided more than a year after national elections. Iraq has gone that long without defense or interior ministers, whose departments are responsible for the military and police.

The approximately 46,000 U.S. troops remaining in Iraq are to depart by the end of 2011 under an agreement negotiated in 2008 by the Bush administration, which went to war in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein's government.

Asking even a few thousand to stay longer carries political risk leaders in both countries.

A signature pledge of President Barack Obama 2008 election campaign was to get the U.S. out of Iraq. For Iraqis fed up with violence, a longer U.S. presence looks like a formula for further strife.

The Associated Press reported on July 5 that the White House is offering to keep up to 10,000 troops in Iraq next year, despite opposition from key Democrats who demand that Obama bring home the troops as promised.

Panetta spent Sunday afternoon at Camp Dwyer, a dust-choked U.S. outpost in southern Afghanistan. He pinned Purple Heart medals on two Marines, had lunch with young officers, got a glimpse at an Army Black Hawk medevac unit and quizzed an Afghan army officer on commanding a unit that specializes in detecting land mines and roadside bombs.

The 73-year-old Panetta, on the job since July 1 after 2 1/2 years heading the CIA, appeared to hold up well under the intense heat. But at one point he seemed to lose track of his latest job switch. In a pep talk to a group of Marines, he said he has always valued public service, from his time in the Army in the 1960s to eight terms as a congressman and his years in the Clinton White House, "and now as director of the CIA."

At issue in Baghdad is whether the Iraqi government will request that the U.S. negotiate a troop extension. The scheduled departure of virtually all U.S. troops by Dec. 31 will leave the country with significant gaps in its ability to defend its own airspace and borders.

Panetta's predecessor at the Pentagon, Robert Gates, visited Iraq in April to push for an early decision and make clear that Washington believes an extension is in both countries' interest.

Panetta, however, seemed less willing to commit to a residual force.

Speaking to reporters before boarding his plane for the flight to Iraq from Camp Dwyer in southern Afghanistan, Panetta was asked whether he intended to encourage the Iraqis to request an extension.

"I'll encourage them to make a decision" about what they want, he replied, leaving open the question of what the White House would accept.

Panetta said he thinks U.S. should consider any Iraqi request and he said Obama "feels we ought to consider it as well." Obama has said repeatedly over the past year that he is responsibly ending the Iraq war and bringing U.S. troops home this year.

Panetta said he also intended to urge Iraqi leaders to do more to go after Shiite militia groups that are using Iranian-supplied weapons to step up attacks on U.S. troops. The U.S. death toll of 15 in June was the highest for any month in the past two years, Panetta said.

"That has concerned us," he said, adding that Iraqi Shiite militiamen using Iranian weapons need to be targeted more aggressively. Pentagon officials believe the Iranians are providing more arms, such as airborne makeshift "lob bombs" and explosively formed projectiles, to give the impression of driving U.S. troops out of Iraq.

Panetta came to his new job with links to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, even if he was not directly involved in military strategy.

He visited both countries during his CIA tenure. Both wars have an unusually heavy intelligence component, with U.S. special operations teams taking on al-Qaida and other insurgents.

One concern about the plan to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of this year is that Iraq's intelligence services are not yet up to the task of adequately supporting counterterrorism forces.

Panetta was a member of the Iraq Study Group, created by Congress in 2006 to consider a better way forward in a war that was spiraling out of control at the time. Coincidentally, Panetta served on the group with Gates until Gates quit because he was picked to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld as defense secretary.

Panetta signed off on the group's final report, which concluded that it was time to get all U.S. ground combat brigades out of Iraq, leaving troops to train the Iraqi army and to undertake strikes against al-Qaida cells.

President George W. Bush took a decidedly different course, ordering troop reinforcements to Iraq as part of a new strategy that is widely credited for turning around the war.

___

Robert Burns can be reached at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP

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Panetta in Iraq as another US soldier killed (AFP)

BAGHDAD (AFP) – US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Baghdad on Sunday to urge Iraqi leaders to act against Iran-backed Shiite militias, as another American soldier was killed in the south of the country.

Panetta, who took office 10 days ago, flew in after visiting Afghanistan and was also to urge Iraqi leaders to decide soon on whether they want US troops beyond the scheduled pullout at the end of this year, a senior US defence official said.

About 46,000 US troops remain in Iraq, down from a high of 170,000 after the 2003 US-led invasion. They are scheduled to leave in less than six months unless a deal is reached between Baghdad and Washington.

"If they are to make a proposal with regards to the continuing US presence there, they have to make a formal request that we would obviously consider," Panetta told reporters shortly after his arrival.

He is due to meet President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massud Barzani.

"The issues for Iraq are security there and what's being done, particularly to deal with the Iranian supply of weapons to militants in Iraq," Panetta said.

Three American soldiers have been killed so far this month, after June was the deadliest month in three years for US troops, with 14 killed.

A US military statement said a soldier was killed in southern Iraq on Sunday, but gave no other details.

Asked about increased attacks on US forces by Shiite militants backed by Iran, Panetta expressed "tremendous concern," and called on Iraqi authorities to do more to "go after those extremists that are making use of these weapons" supplied by Tehran.

"If we're all gonna be partners, they have a responsibility to protect against that kind of attack. It's in the interest of Iraq to provide for their own security," he said.

Iran has denied US accusations that it was smuggling weapons to insurgents in two of its neighbours, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Panetta said the United States was open to a request by Iraq on a troop extension.

"If they are to make a proposal with regards to the continuing US presence there, they have to make a formal request that we would obviously consider," Panetta told reporters.

"I think the secretary will convey to the Iraqis... that there's some urgency for them to make that request if they're going to make it," said a senior defence official travelling with the defence secretary.

Panetta is the latest senior US official to arrive in Iraq, asking officials to accept a contingent of American troops beyond 2011. US diplomatic sources in Baghdad say there has been no talk on the possible number who could remain.

But a possible extension would be deeply unpopular among the public in Iraq, where many people look upon the American soldiers as "occupiers."

Talabani, a Kurd, said on Saturday that political parties would announce their decision in two weeks on whether they want some US forces to remain.

Some Kurdish officials have said they want American forces to stay beyond the deadline, but the powerful Shiite movement of Moqtada al-Sadr has threatened to resume armed struggle against American troops if they extend their stay.

Panetta said he would also press Iraqi leaders to speedily appoint defence and interior ministers, posts which remain vacant because of political bickering, despite the formation of a unity government last December.

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New defense chief Panetta in Iraq, to press on drawdown (Reuters)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Leon Panetta arrived in Iraq on Sunday on his first trip there as defense secretary, saying he would press Baghdad on the future U.S. military presence and go after militants attacking U.S. forces with Iranian rockets.

The United States is scheduled to withdraw all of its remaining 46,000 troops from Iraq by the end of this year, under the terms of a bilateral security pact -- despite U.S. and Iraqi military concerns about expected gaps in security.

Panetta, who is fresh from a trip to Afghanistan, made hopeful remarks to Congress last month that Iraq's government might eventually ask some U.S. forces to remain beyond 2011. But he was cautious in his comments to reporters in Afghanistan, just before departing for Iraq.

Asked whether he would encourage Iraq to ask some U.S. forces to stay, Panetta said: "I'll encourage them to make a decision so that we'll know where we're going."

U.S. officials say that the clock is ticking and that the longer the Iraqis wait, the more difficult it becomes for Washington to say "yes."

"Nothing is actually completely impossible. But things do become costlier and riskier" the later in the year it gets, said one senior U.S. defense official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity.

"They could conceivably ask General Austin as the last guy in Iraq at midnight on December 31st but it would be pretty difficult for us to say 'yes'," the official said, referring to Army General Lloyd Austin, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.

The question is a tricky one for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led coalition government. At least one key group in Maliki's fragile cross-sectarian coalition -- the political bloc of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr -- openly opposes a continuing U.S. military presence.

Sadr's bloc has threatened to escalate protests and even "military resistance" if U.S. troops stay on.

Another political hiccup that is worrying Washington is Baghdad's failure so far to name a defense minister -- an issue Panetta said he would raise in his talks with Maliki on Monday.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart)

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Leon Panetta says al Qaeda's defeat "within reach" (Reuters)

KABUL (Reuters) – New U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday, saying he believed the strategic defeat of al Qaeda was within reach if the United States could kill or capture up to 20 remaining leaders of the core group and its affiliates.

Panetta, on his first trip since taking over the Pentagon on July 1, told reporters before arriving in Kabul that now was the time -- in the wake of the May killing of Osama bin Laden -- to intensify efforts to target al Qaeda's leadership.

"We're within reach of strategically defeating al Qaeda and I'm hoping to be able to focus on that, working obviously with my prior agency as well," said Panetta, who ran the CIA until the end of June.

"Now is the moment following what happened with bin Laden, to put maximum pressure on them. Because I do believe that if we continue this effort that we can really cripple al Qaeda as a threat to (the United States)."

Panetta declined to offer all the names of al Qaeda leadership the United States was looking at. But he singled out two men: Anwar al-Awlaki, an American imam who has become a senior leader of al Qaeda's Yemen-based affiliate, and Ayman al-Zawahri, who replaced bin Laden as the head of al Qaeda.

Panetta said he believed Zawahri was living in Pakistan's tribal areas, and "he's one of those we would like to see the Pakistanis target."

"I would say somewhere around 10-20 key leaders that between Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, AQIM (al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) in North Africa. Those are, if we can go after them, I think we really can strategically defeat al Qaeda," he said.

Panetta added that the U.S. military and the CIA were engaged in a number of operations focusing on militants in Yemen. He did not give specifics.

BETTER TIES WITH KARZAI?

Panetta's first trip to Afghanistan as defense secretary comes at a time of growing impatience in the United States with the nearly decade-old war, even as President Barack Obama pushes ahead with plans for a faster-than-expected drawdown.

Critics say the U.S. war strategy is undermined partly by Pakistan's failure to go after militants -- including those staging cross-border attacks in Afghanistan.

Panetta acknowledged Pakistani cooperation in going after some militants but added "we've got to continue to push (the Pakistanis) to do that."

"That's the key," Panetta said.

Critics also point to the strained relationship with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has been accused of failing to address rampant corruption.

Although Panetta has met Karzai several times before as CIA director, he expressed hope that Obama's decision to move top officials including himself into new roles linked to Afghanistan would help improve ties.

"Hopefully it can be the beginning of a much better relationship than what we've had (with Karzai) over the past few years," Panetta said.

Obama's withdrawal plans call for the first 10,000 of the nearly 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan to leave the country by the end of this year. Another 23,000 will pull out by the end of next summer, with the goal of gradually handing over lead security responsibility to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

Panetta said the biggest challenge remained training Afghan forces in the months and years ahead.

"We've made good progress on that, but I think there's a lot more work to do of being able to transition responsibility to them," he said.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Eric Beech)

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Panetta: US within reach of defeating al-Qaida (AP)

By ROBERT BURNS, AP National Security Writer Robert Burns, Ap National Security Writer – 2?hrs?18?mins?ago

KABUL, Afghanistan – The U.S. and its allies are within reach of defeating al-Qaida after killing Osama bin Laden and gaining new insights about the terrorist group's other leading figures, new U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Saturday.

The former CIA director offered an upbeat assessment about the prospects for ending al-Qaida's threat as he spoke with reporters flying with him on his first visit to Afghanistan since taking over as Pentagon chief July 1.

In a separate interview later, Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said he agreed with Panetta's assessment.

In the aftermath of the May 2 raid that killed bin Laden in Pakistan, the U.S. has determined that eliminating "somewhere around 10 to 20 key leaders" of al-Qaida would cripple the network, Panetta said. Those leaders are in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and North Africa, he added.

"We're within reach of strategically defeating al-Qaida," Panetta said, addressing reporters for the first time since succeeding Robert Gates as defense secretary.

"The key is that, having gotten bin Laden, we've now identified some of the key leadership within al-Qaida, both in Pakistan as well as in Yemen and other areas," he said.

"If we can be successful at going after them, I think we can really undermine their ability to do any kind of planning, to be able to conduct any kind of attack" on the United States. "That's why I think it's within reach. Is it going to take some more work? You bet it is. But I think it's within reach," Panetta said.

In an interview at the main U.S. military headquarters in Kabul, Petraeus said al-Qaida is on the run.

"There has been enormous damage done to al-Qaida," beyond the death of bin Laden, in the areas of western Pakistan where the group is believed operating, Petraeus said. "That has very significantly disrupted their efforts and it does hold the prospect of a strategic defeat, if you will, a strategic dismantling, of al-Qaida."

Asked how he defines a "strategic defeat" for al-Qaida, Petraeus said it means that "they can't carry out strategically important attacks."

Petraeus, who is leaving his post this month and succeeding Panetta at the CIA, said there are small numbers of al-Qaida terrorists in Afghanistan. He said the al-Qaida "brand" is likely to remain a feature of the global terrain, even if the Pakistan-based core of al-Qaida is unable to carry out large attacks against the West.

Panetta said the 10 to 20 top terrorist figures in al-Qaida's hierarchy who are now the focus of U.S. efforts include Ayman al-Zawahri, the designator successor to bin Laden as al-Qaida's leader.

Panetta said the U.S. believes al-Zawahri is living in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of western Pakistan.

The only other name he mentioned was Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born Muslim cleric living in Yemen. The U.S. has put him on a kill-or-capture list.

"Now is the moment, following what happened with bin Laden, to put maximum pressure on them because I do believe that if we continue this effort we can really cripple al-Qaida as a major threat" to America, he said.

Al-Qaida's attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, triggered the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan and the overthrow of the Taliban government that had sheltered bin Laden. But in the years since, the Taliban has reasserted itself and al-Qaida has managed to operate from havens in neighboring Pakistan.

Al-Qaida affiliates have emerged in Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, and elsewhere. That's led many in the U.S. to argue for a shift from fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan to targeting al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan and other places.

Asked whether he thought Pakistani authorities knew that bin Laden had been living in their country, Panetta said, "Suspicions, but no smoking gun." The Pakistani government says it did not know bin Laden's whereabouts when Navy SEALs attacked his compound not far from Islamabad.

In Panetta's talks with Petraeus and his successor, Marine Gen. John R. Allen, a central topic was expected to be President Barack Obama's decision on June 22 to withdraw 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan this year and 23,000 more by September 2012. The drawdown is to begin this month, but not all details have been worked out.

Offering an overview of the security situation in Afghanistan, Petraeus said he was encouraged that the number of insurgent attacks in June was down slightly from June 2010 and that the trend is holding thus far in July. This contrasts with intelligence analysts' forecast of an 18 percent to 30 percent increase for 2011, he said.

Panetta also intended to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Karzai's mercurial character and frequent public criticisms of the U.S.-led international military coalition have soured his relations with many U.S. officials, including the current U.S. ambassador. Karl Eikenberry.

Eikenberry is handing off that post this month to Ryan Crocker, a veteran diplomat and former U.S, ambassador to Iraq who was coaxed out of retirement. Crocker reopened the U.S. Embassy in Kabul after the 2001 toppling of the Taliban

Panetta said he believes he and Obama's "whole new team" of U.S. leaders in Kabul have a good understanding of Karzai.

"Hopefully, it can be the beginning of a much better relationship than what we've had over the last few years," he said.

On a lighter note, he said he has gotten a feel for his new job as defense secretary. He compared it to his official aircraft, a towering military version of the Boeing 747.

"It's big, it's complicated, it's filled with sophisticated technology, it's bumpy, but in the end it's the best in the world."

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Robert Burns is on Twitter (at)robertburnsAP.

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