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Iraqi leaders call for pullout timetable
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-22 18:44
On Monday, Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr suggested U.S.-led forces
should be able to leave Iraq by the end of next year, saying the one-year
extension of the mandate for the multinational force in Iraq by the U.N.
Security Council this month could be the last.
"By the middle of next year we will be 75 percent done in building our forces
and by the end of next year it will be fully ready," he told the Arab satellite
station Al-Jazeera.
Debate in Washington over when to bring troops home
turned bitter last week after decorated Vietnam War vet Rep. John Murtha,
D-Pa., called for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, and
estimated a pullout could be complete within six months. Republicans rejected
Murtha's position.
In Egypt, the final communique's attempt to define terrorism omitted any
reference to attacks against U.S. or Iraqi forces. Delegates from across the
political and religious spectrum said the omission was intentional. They spoke
anonymously, saying they feared retribution.
"Though resistance is a legitimate right for all people, terrorism does not
represent resistance. Therefore, we condemn terrorism and acts of violence,
killing and kidnapping targeting Iraqi citizens and humanitarian, civil,
government institutions, national resources and houses of worships," the
document said.
The final communique also stressed participants' commitment to Iraq's unity
and called for the release of all "innocent detainees" who have not been
convicted by courts. It asked that allegations of torture against prisoners be
investigated and those responsible be held accountable.
The statement also demanded "an immediate end to arbitrary raids and arrests
without a documented judicial order."
The communique included no means for implementing its provisions, leaving it
unclear what it will mean in reality other than to stand as a symbol of a first
step toward bringing the feuding parties together in an agreement in principle.
"We are committed to this statement as far as it is in
the best interests of the Iraqi people," said Harith al-Dhari, leader of the
powerful Association of Muslim Scholars, a hard-line Sunni group. He said he had
reservations about the document as a whole, and delegates said he had again
expressed strong opposition to the concept of federalism enshrined in Iraq's new
constitution.
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