ambassador feltman said the iraqis have to define these things. okay. it is not as if the united states was acting as a neutral broker. i don't believe the united states is seen as an impartial broker. it was just announced that it won't deal with the ambassador designate in iraq because he is too close to maliki. this is a serious thing. becae

investor feltman.it's important to the region overall, one of the worries about iraq moving forward is what will happen in syria. estimate one of the biggest worries is the might double down in iraq and see it as more of a strategic depth for itself to respect if they come to the government and say that's a possibility what is the position? >> thank you. we have the first question on the mulkey relationship and support to a saudi and also the kurdish syrian relationship. ambassador, would you like to address that? >> you phrase the question that we discuss a lot which is the relationship there are several factors that go into the debate inside iraq. first of all, there is iraq's internal politics because syria becomes one of those elements that plays into iraq's internal politics where politicians accuse each other a certain sense based on how they stand on syria, so there's an internal dynamic in iraqi politics that comes from syria. there's also the fear of what could happen in the aftermath and sugg

and to dan feltman, professor dan feltman who has been a dear friend and a wonderful scholar and distinguished public servant and of course the indefatigable moran's travis who made this wonderful event possible this evening. thanks to all of you for coming to talk about a subject that is not really a pleasant subject and most people don't want to hear about but that is really vital to our democracy. that is the subject of accountability for everyone, for the high and the mighty as well as the low and the vulnerable, the poor and the powerless. we just heard the president of the united states respond to the concern that the bank stirs weren't being held criminally responsible for the depredations that they caused to our economy, and he created a stepped up and beefed-up investigative team and investigative unit. accountability has not been had for the action of the bush administration and for the serious abuses and misconduct that took place. i want to start by saying that i got hung up on the idea of accountabili it was essential to our functioning as a democracy, not only that there would be

the beginning, when the iraqi government very clearly was coming down, and i agree with ambassador feltman, it has been taken to accepting the nonplan and so on, the u.n. arab league plan. but in the beginning, even the president of the republic made a statement about, well, our fear is that the muslim brotherhood might come to power in iraq, and you sort of were stunned at the time, because the vice president of iraq is from the iraqi branch of the muslim brotherhood, so he's the vice president, and events unfolded as they did, but that was before. the iraqis have come to this grudging -- i think it's grudging, and i think it had more to do with trying to get more heads of state to try to show up in baghdad, had more to do with that than a strategic decision by iraq to reengage the arab state system again. those are two very different things. in distinction, the comments from the beginning were, you know, we stand with the people of syria, and that is -- i've not heard those kinds of statements from any responsible iraqi official. >> maybe i can add a word on this. it seems to me that he'

i will be happy to turn it over to ambassador feltman. [applause] >> thank you for this opportunity to see many old friends and colleagues and a whole room of iraq experts. we can argue about whether it has disappeared or not but with in the hallways of the u.s. government, iraq has not disappeared. is is still very important. for lack of a better term, it is an exciting time. it is an asperse the exciting time for those of us focused on iraq. in recent years, where the past year, we have seen a tremendous change in the region and in terms of our relationship with iraq. amid that change, i have heard many questions about iraq and about our engagement there. i would like to use my time to review three questions that i hear most frequently. the first question, not only in washington but as i travel, haven't you abandon iraq to iran? make no mistake. the withdrawal of u.s. troops marked a significant milestone in our relationship. there was much debate in washington as well as the reason about what the presence after september 11 should look

assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs jeffrey feltman testified before the committee on foreign affairs of the united states senate that -- quote -- "large numbers of syrians are living every day under siege, deprived of basic necessities including food, clean water and medical supplies and women and children are wounded and dying for lack of treatment." general mattis, commander of the united states central command for whom i have the strongest and deepest respect, explained before the senate armed services committee the syrian military continues to ruthlessly use lethal force with impunity against the syrian people. in this body, we have not remained silent in the face of this humanitarian disaster. approving on february 17, 2012, senate resolution 379 condemning violence by the government of syria against the syrian people. we have also passed senate resolution 391 which i cosponsored condemning violence by the government of syria against journalists and expressing the sense of the senate on freedom of the press in syria. now the world should be inspired by the con