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Conditions could soon be right for troop
withdrawal from Iraq, says Rice
23.11.2005
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Washington, 23
Nov. (AKI) - The conditions for a reduction in the
number of American troops in Iraq could be right
"fairly soon", the US secretary of state Condoleezza
Rice has said in interviews with two US TV channels.
She said senior American officials believe the Iraqi
forces are now becoming more and more able to cope
with difficult tasks, and are therefore less reliant
on the US forces in tackling the insurgency.
"The president has said that as soon as Iraqi forces
are ready, we want to see a reduction in our own
forces. And I think those days are going to be
coming fairly soon when Iraqis are going to be more
and more capable of carrying out the functions to
secure their own future," she told Fox News. "I do
not think that American forces need to be there in
the numbers that they are now… for very much longer,
because Iraqis are stepping up."
However, training up significant numbers of Iraqi
troops is not enough, Rice said. "It's actually
seeing them hold territory. It's seeing them be able
to go in and defend that highway from the airport
that was always considered such a violent highway.
It means that they are in control of whole areas in
the south and in parts of the north," she said.
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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Photo: AFP |
In the past, US president George W. Bush and other
senior US officials have been reluctant to give
timescales on when the US troops may be withdrawn
from Iraq, for fear of encouraging the insurgents to
wait out the American pullout. As recently as last
weekend, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed
questions about timetables, saying only that the
move to reduce the number of US personnel in the
country would be "conditions based".
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