Rumsfeld, speaking at a Pentagon briefing today, said Iraqi leaders would not allow the country to plunge into civil war.
"[Iraqi leaders] have to be fully aware that if this does not work, they and all of the people who have supported them lose everything, if this turned into a civil war, and they can't want that," Rumsfeld said. "They want just the opposite and they've demonstrated the courage to show that they want just the opposite."
Hundreds of people were killed in sectarian violence sparked by the February 22 bombing of a major Shi'ite shrine in Samarra.
Rumsfeld also said Iranian revolutionary guards were infiltrating into Iraq and warned Tehran it was making an "error in judgment" by allowing that.
(Reuters, AP, AFP)