The US plans to seek Iran’s help in controlling the unrest in Iraq as Washington unveiled a plan to withdraw from there.President George W Bush has given country’s US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalizad an “explicit” permission to start a diplomatic dialogue with Iran on the issue. “I’ve been authorised by the President to engage the Iranians, as I engaged them in Afghanistan directly,” Khalilzad told the Newsweek. The White House has for the first time yesterday came out with its own version of an Iraq withdrawal plan.Emphasising the dangers of a “panicky pullout”, the envoy said, “people need to be clear what the stakes are here. If we were to do a premature withdrawal, there could be a Shia-Sunni war here that could spread beyond Iraq.”“And you could have Iran backing the Shias and Sunni Arab states backing the Sunnis,” he said adding that it could result in a a regional war that goes on for a very long time and affect the security of oil supplies.
