Ahmad Chalabi: "US troops should leave Iraq"

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Iraqi council calls for US forces to leave Iraq

Associated Press/Hindustan Times -Cairo, September 27

In a surprising development the president of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council on Saturday said that US troops should leave Iraq and be replaced by a UN-led international force to protect the country.

Ahmad Chalabi in an interview to the London-based Arabic daily, Al-Hayat, said that a United Nations resolution to send peacekeepers to Iraq would signal the end to his country's US-led occupation.

"We do not want an occupation force in Iraq" Chalabi told Al-Hayat. "But we want an international force to remain in order to protect Iraq from any external dangers, the same as happens in several Arab countries."

Chalabi was apparently referring to various Gulf states, including Kuwait, where US forces have been stationed since the 1991 Gulf War that drove Saddam Hussein's occupying forces from Iraq's southern neighbour.

The US is pushing for a new UN resolution to try to get more countries to contribute troops and money to Iraq. But it faces opposition from numerous Security Council nations that want Washington to handover power to the United Nations.

Various countries and international organisations have shied away from officially recognising Iraq's interim Governing Council, arguing that it cannot be seen as the country's legitimate authority while under foreign occupation.

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printed from Ahmad Chalabi: "US troops should leave Iraq" on 2004-05-25 21:54:53