The Hindu : U.S. troops in no hurry to leave Iraq: Rumsfeld

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 04, 2003

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International

U.S. troops in no hurry to leave Iraq: Rumsfeld

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON MAY 3. The U.S. Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, who met the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, at Chequers over the weekend, made clear that there were no plans to pull out American troops from Iraq any time soon saying it was still a "dangerous place''.

He also remained non-committal on the precise role the United Nations would be expected to play in post-war Iraq despite a strong plea by Mr. Blair that the world forum must be closely involved in any reconstruction plans.

Mr. Blair is understood to have insisted that the proposed `stabilisation' force for Iraq must have U.N.'s backing in order to give it more teeth and credibility, but Mr. Rumsfeld refused to be drawn into specifics simply saying: "I hope they do play a role.'' Mr. Rumsfeld, who also met the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, during a stopover on his way back from a visit to Baghdad, told reporters that it was not possible to indicate how long the U.S. troops would remain in Iraq.

``I don't know, and it's not knowable,'' he replied testily. Pressed further, he said: "It would be a terrible mistake to think that Iraq is a fully secure, fully pacified environment...It is not, it's dangerous.'' To the Iraqis, who are demanding withdrawal of foreign forces, his uncompromising message was that the U.S. troops would stay in the region as long as it took them to pacify the situation. ``We'll have as many forces in the country as is necessary to see that there is a secure environment.''

Britain, which hosted a meeting of 16 countries earlier in the week to discuss the post-war situation in Iraq, indicated that its troops too were likely to remain there for a considerable time. They would be part of a multinational `stabilisation' force comprising, among others, many countries belonging to what Mr. Rumsfeld called the `new Europe'.

Ten countries, including Italy, Spain and Poland, have offered to contribute troops to the proposed stabilisation force which would operate under overall U.S. command.

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