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The decision of Iraq partition should be
left for the Iraqi people: Iraqi FM 2.10.2007
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October
2, 2007
BOSTON -- Iraq's foreign minister said Monday
a premature pullout of U.S. troops could send the
country and region spiraling into chaos and called a
U.S. Senate proposal to divide Iraq into three
regions well-intentioned but a bad idea.
Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs Hoshyar Zebari
also said during a speech at Harvard University's
John F. Kennedy School of Government that he remains
optimistic despite the strife roiling his country.
"The task facing us is challenging, but I'm
confident about the future of my country," Zebari
said. "No matter how close we came to the brink, the
Iraqi people have risen to the occasion."
He said that crucial to helping Iraq maintain a path
toward democracy and stability are the 160,000 U.S.
troops there. |
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari spoke to
students at the Institute of Politics yesterday
evening, discussing both his people’s optimism and
the challenges they still face
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Though support for the war among U.S. voters has
waned, he said a rapid withdrawal could lead to the
collapse of Iraq's government and allow terrorist
groups like al-Qaida to set up permanent shop within
his country.
"If we fail we might have a country torn apart by
civil strife," he said. "Terrorists will have safe
havens that they will turn into death triangles."
Although he said a multinational force should
remain, Zebari said Iraq would eventually like to
negotiate a long term bilateral security agreement
with the United States similar to agreements the
U.S. has with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt and other
countries.
The speech comes ahead of a planned meeting in
Istanbul, Turkey, in early November between Iraq and
its neighbors where Iraqi officials will press for
help in three key areas: security, refugees and
energy.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and
representatives of Iran, Russia, France, Italy,
Egypt and Saudi Arabia are expected to attend the
meeting, which Zebari said is another important step
in gaining international recognition for the
government.
"Iraq is now fully engaged internationally," he
said. "Look at what we are aspiring to - a free
country, a united federal democracy at peace with
its neighbors and with itself. We are not there
yet."
The high-level meeting is seen as a follow-up to a
May meeting in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt. At that
meeting, Iraq's neighbors pledged to stop sending
militants to the country, a promise the United
States says those countries have failed to keep.
Zebari's visit comes on the heels of a U.S. Senate
proposal calling for a limited centralized Iraqi
government with the bulk of the power given to the
country's ethnically divided regions.
The proposal has met with harsh criticism from
representatives of Iraq's major political parties,
saying it would seriously hamper the country's
political stability. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
also criticized the proposal.
Zebari said a problem with the proposal is that
parts of Iraq have long been mixed, instead of being
divided along the country's three major ethnic and
religious groups.
"That is not a solution. There is no magical
solution," said Zebari, who was born in Iraqi
Kurdistan. "This decision should be left for the
Iraqi people."
Zebari also urged Iran and the U.S. to keep his
country apart from their many disputes with each
other.
"The message we have been sending out to both
(countries) is to keep their differences away from
Iraq because we have too much on our plate," he
said.
AP
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