A U.S. military victory in Iraq is no longer possible, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said Sunday, according to The Associated Press news agency.
President Bush recently said that the U.S. will remain in Iraq until its government "can sustain and defend itself."
But Kissinger, who has advised the Bush administration on Iraq, predicted a bleak future for the war-torn country, saying that the breakup of Iraq could be the eventual outcome.
"If you mean by 'military victory' an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control in a time period that the political processes of the democracies will support, I don't believe that is possible," he told the BBC on Sunday.
The 83-year-old political heavyweight, who served as a national security adviser and secretary of state in the Nixon and Ford administrations, also said that the U.S. course must be re-defined, stressing that Washington should open dialogue with Iraq's regional neighbors, including Iran and Syria, if progress is to be achieved in the region.
"I believe America has to be in some dialogue with Iran," he said.
However, Kissinger warned against a quick withdrawal of the U.S.'s 140,000 troops from Iraq, saying it could destabilize the country's neighbors and cause a long-lasting conflict.
"A dramatic collapse of Iraq - whatever we think about how the situation was created - would have disastrous consequences for which we would pay for many years and which would bring us back, one way or another, into the region," he said.
"I think we have to redefine the course, but I don't think that the alternative is between military victory, as defined previously, or total withdrawal," he added.
Kissinger also called for an international conference bringing together the permanent members of the UN Security Council, Iraq's neighbors, and regional powers to thrash out the future for Iraq.
"We have to move at some early point to some international definition of what a legitimate outcome is -- something that can be supported by the surrounding states and by ourselves and our allies," the Nobel Peace Prize laureate said.
"At some early point an international conference should be called that involves neighbors, perhaps the permanent members of the Security Council and countries that have a major interest in the outcome like India and Pakistan."
Kissinger's opinion has been sought by the Iraq Study Group, led by former Secretary of State James Baker III, which is preparing to offer its recommendations for a change of the U.S.'s strategy in the war-torn country.
The Iraq War has become increasingly unpopular in the United States as the American death toll nears 2,900, while raging violence claims the lives of thousands of Iraqis each month. The conflict has contributed to the Democratic victory in the Nov. 7 congressional elections.
Kissinger's comments came after British Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted that violence in Iraq has been a disaster since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
The Liberal Democrats said Blair's admission indicated that he finally accepted the enormity of his decision to go to war in Iraq.
Agencies
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