The Hindu : International : U.S. forces will leave Iraq if asked: Powell

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Sunday, May 16, 2004

International

International

U.S. forces will leave Iraq if asked: Powell

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, MAY 15. The U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has said that the American led coalition forces will leave Iraq if the interim government there should ask, but was quick to note that such a request is unlikely to come about.

The Cabinet official has cleared up some confusion that has come about in the administration policy after senior officials of the State department and the Pentagon have differed on the subject. The Pentagon has been taking the view that the subject of troops leaving Iraq was not the authority of the interim government but of an elected government that will be in place only next year.

"I have no doubt that the interim Iraqi government will welcome the continued presence and operation of coalition military forces," Mr. Powell remarked going on to say that he was "losing no sleep" thinking that coalition troops may be asked to pack their bags.

At the same time with a view to clearing up the confusion on the subject, Mr. Powell said "...were this interim government to say to us `we really think we can handle this on our own, it would be better if you were to leave', we would leave."

The Secretary of State was meeting colleagues and senior officials from the Group of Eight who are here to prepare for the Sea Island Summit in Georgia next month. Foreign Ministers of Britain, Italy and Japan joined Mr. Powell in saying that any request from the interim government on the status of troops would be honoured.

The British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, stressed that any abrupt withdrawal of forces would not serve the stability of Iraq. "But were the government that takes over to ask us to leave, we would leave," Mr. Straw remarked. The expectation in official and private quarters here is that the new interim government in Iraq will not ask the coalition forces to leave, but the issue is meriting a lot of attention here and elsewhere against the backdrop of the outrages committed on Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers.

France, for instance, is making it absolutely clear that the new interim Iraqi government must be given explicit power to rid the country of American and coalition forces if it really wanted to. "There has to be a complete break with the past, with the Iraqi Government replacing the coalition," the Foreign Minister, Michel Barnier, said. France has once again said that it would not participate in sending troops to Iraq but would be a part of any European effort in rebuilding that West Asian country.

The White House is saying that the Iraqi people still want help from the coalition forces to provide security and that the Iraqi security forces are not yet fully trained to provide for the security environment "...after the transfer of sovereignty on June 30, we expect to continue partner with Iraqi forces to improve the security situation," the Spokesman said.

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