U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned squabbling Kurds and Iraqi Arabs on Wednesday that they don't have much time to settle their differences and offered to help mediate before American forces leave in less than three years. Gates talked with Kurdish President Massoud Barzani and other leaders on their home ground in the Kurds' oil-rich, self-ruled area. «We urged them to take advantage of our remaining time in Iraq to settle some of these disputed issues,» Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters. Gates «reminded his host that we have all sacrificed too much in blood and treasure to see the gains of the last few years lost due to political differences,» Morrell was quoted as saying by The Associated Press. The secretary told Barzani he had delivered the same message to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad on Tuesday. Morrell said the U.S. military has advisers already serving as go-betweens for the Kurdish militia and Iraq's armed forces. Gates told Barzani that the U.S. backs a set of United Nations recommendations to resolve some of the major disputes. Morrell would not characterize Barzani's response, except to say that Gates left the meeting «with the sense, just as he did in Baghdad, that the Kurds very much want to take advantage of our presence.» Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. general in the country, identified the tension in northern Iraq as the «No. 1 driver of instability.» «Many insurgent groups are trying to exploit the tensions,» Odierno told reporters Tuesday. «We're watching very carefully to see that this doesn't escalate.»
