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Iraq rejects permanent U.S. bases
11.12.2007
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December
11, 2007
Baghdad,-- Iraq will never allow the United
States to keep permanent military bases on its soil,
the government's national security adviser has said.
"We need the United States in our war against
terrorism, we need them to guard our border
sometimes, we need them for economic support and we
need them for diplomatic and political support,"
Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said.
"But I say one thing, permanent forces or bases in
Iraq for any foreign forces is a red line that
cannot be accepted by any nationalist Iraqi," he
said, speaking to Dubai-based al Arabiya television
in an interview broadcast late on Monday.
The United States has around 160,000 troops in Iraq,
officially under a United Nations mandate enacted
after the U.S.-led liberation in 2003.
Earlier, Iraqi Kurdistan region leaders welcomed and
urged US to create permanent military bases in
Kurdistan autonomous region. Iraqi Kurds are the
strongest allies the US has in the area.www.ekurd.net
In June, Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani's son
Qubad Talabani said
having U.S. forces in Iraq would "spare the Kurdish
people any forms of injustice," stressing that
setting up a U.S. base in Iraq's Kurdistan region
"is in favor of both the United States Kurdistan."
Iraq formally asked the United Nations on Monday to
renew that mandate for a year until the end of 2008
but made clear it would not extend it beyond next
year, and that the mandate could be revoked sooner
at Iraq's request.
U.S. President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki signed a "declaration of
principles" last month agreeing to friendly
long-term relations, but arrangements for U.S.
troops to stay beyond next year have yet to be
negotiated.
Iraq has become less violent in recent months after
Bush sent an extra 30,000 troops to the country.
Washington intends to reduce its force by more than
20,000 by June 2008, and is expected to decide in
March on force levels beyond that date.
U.S. commanders say al Qaeda Sunni Arab militants
remain a serious threat, especially in the north of
the country.www.ekurd.net
Last week an al
Qaeda-linked group threatened a wave of new attacks.
On Tuesday, a suicide bomber blew up a car bomb at a
checkpoint in a heavily guarded affluent west
Baghdad neighbourhood near the homes of former
interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the leader of
a small Sunni Arab party.
Two people were killed and 12 wounded in the attack.
Neither politician was at their homes at the time.
The head of Iraq's largest mental hospital was
killed by gunmen in a drive-by shooting late on
Monday, the latest in a wave of attacks on medical
experts that has caused an exodus of many of Iraq's
most skilled doctors.
Reuters
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