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Talabani: US must stay until Iraq forces
ready
31.10.2006
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PARIS, October
31,-- U.S.-led forces should only withdraw from Iraq
when local security forces are able to maintain
order on their own, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani
said in a newspaper interview published on Tuesday.
Talabani, who embarks on an official visit to France
later this week, told the daily Le Figaro a civil
war could still be avoided despite the heavy daily
death toll in Iraq from bomb and other attacks, and
said that al Qaeda's influence was declining.
"The international coalition will only withdraw when
Iraqi security forces are ready to take over on
their own the challenge of maintaining law and
order," he told Le Figaro, adding international
splits should not rebound on Iraq.
Discussions should focus "not on the drawing up of a
timetable for withdrawing American troops but on the
goals that should be set for Iraqi forces so that
they may continue to take over security in the
regions," he said. |
Iraqi
President : Jalal Talabani, a Kurd |
U.S. President George W. Bush's Republicans face
possible loss of control of Congress in Nov.7
elections, with dismay over his Iraq policy a
critical factor in voter intentions.
Polls show growing numbers of voters want the
150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq to start coming home.
Talabani said Iraqi political leaders understood
violence was not an option, "therefore, civil war
can be avoided." Foreign terrorists allied to groups
linked to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein were in
part to blame for the daily violence in Iraq, he
added.
Contacts had been made with some groups involved in
guerrilla attacks on U.S-led and Iraqi forces in an
effort to reduce the daily death toll and restore
security.
"Previously, these contacts were limited to their
disarmament.
Now, we are negotiating their integration into the
political process in the context of national
reconciliation," Talabani said.
On al Qaeda, the Iraqi leader said Osama bin Laden's
group was on the decline. Sunni tribes in Anbar
province had started fighting al Qaeda, which had
received support from pro-Saddam groups and unnamed
foreign forces.
Reuters
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