The Hindu : International : Allawi warns against early U.S. pullout

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 06, 2004

International

International

Allawi warns against early U.S. pullout

By Michael Howard

BAGHDAD, JUNE 5. Iraq's new Prime Minister gave his first televised address to the nation on Friday and insisted that the premature withdrawal of multinational forces from the country ``would be a major disaster.''

The warning from Ayad Allawi came as the number of American soldiers killed in combat since last year's invasion reached 600.

The U.S. military also disclosed that a close aide to an Al-Qaeda leader who is America's most wanted man in Iraq has been seized by police.

With a new U.N. resolution on Iraq still being negotiated, Mr. Allawi, who will serve as Prime Minister until elections are held next year, reiterated that Iraq was ready to assume full sovereignty from the coalition after June 30 and that Iraqis would never accept occupation.

But he admitted that the country would need to rely on the presence of the U.S.-led forces to ensure security until at least early next year.

Mr. Allawi thanked the U.S., Britain and other coalition members for removing the former regime.

``The targeting of the multinational forces under the leadership of the United States to force them to leave Iraq would inflict a major disaster on Iraq, especially before the completion of the building of security and military institutions,'' he said. ``And I would like to mention here that the coalition forces too have offered the blood of their sons as a result of terror attacks designed to force them to leave Iraq.''

Mr. Allawi, who had developed close ties with MI6 and the CIA during his exile, said his new Government wanted to ``guide Iraq into a new era where Iraqis could decide their own leaders by voting.''

He said the new Government would work to reconcile national divisions created by the former regime: ``Former Ba'athists can live with dignity in society so long as they have not committed any crimes.''

Mr. Allawi urged Iraqis to join together to ``confront the dangers of terrorism which aimed at destroying the foundations'' of the Iraqi state.

Earlier, the coalition disclosed that a suspected terrorist, Umar Baziyani, had been captured.

Mr. Baziyani was described as a ``valuable officer'' to the Jordanian-born militant Abu al-Zarqawi, the suspected Al-Qaeda leader who has been blamed for a number of large-scale bombings in the past year, including last month's assassination of the head of the Iraqi Governing Council.

The U.S. military has a $10-million price on Mr. Zarqawi's head. —

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