Iraqi rebels 'part of solution'

2005-11-23 23:13

Baghdad - A top United States military spokesperson called on Wednesday for parts of Iraq's raging insurgency to be brought into the political process, while insisting that Al-Qaeda was being hit hard by offensives.

"We understand the capabilities, the vulnerabilities and the intentions of each group of the insurgency - the foreign fighters, the Iraqi rejectionists and the Saddamists," said Major-General Rick Lynch.

"The group in the middle, the Iraqi rejectionists - (which) includes the Shia rejectionists and the Sunni rejectionists - we believe that deliberate outreach will allow them to participate in the political process and allow them to become part of the solution and not part of the problem," he said.

Lynch was commenting on last week's Iraqi reconciliation conference in Cairo which called for elements of the insurgency to be involved in the talks.

It also recognised the importance of distinguishing between different factions of the resistance.

Al-Qaeda 'being disrupted'

US officials initially had expressed dissatisfaction with the final statement from the Arab League-sponsored meeting which condemned "terrorism", but also spoke of "the legitimate right of people to resistance".

Lynch said a recently concluded offensive in the country's restive western province of al-Anbar had disrupted the al-Qaeda in Iraq group of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi enough to allow reconstruction projects to proceed.

"We come close to Zarqawi continuously and, at one point in time, in the not-too-distant future, we are going to get Zarqawi," he said.

In Tehran, visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said that Iran was doing its utmost to stem the insurgency.

"Iran is interested in our security just as it is interested in its own security," said Talabani as he was seen off by hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"They all said one thing to me: that there are no limits to Iran's co-operation with, and support for, the Iraqi people and government."

Troop reductions 'soon'

In Washington, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said troop reductions could occur soon.

"The president has said that as soon as Iraqi forces are ready, we want to see a reduction in our own forces.

"I think those days are going to be coming fairly soon when Iraqis are going to be more and more capable of carrying out the functions to secure their own future," Rice told Fox News Channel.

About 159 000 US troops are deployed in Iraq ahead of the December vote, the final stage in the political transition to democracy after the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

- AFP