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Spain will stay in Iraq
02/12/2003 21:37 - (SA)
Madrid - Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar told parliament on Tuesday his government would stand firm on Iraq despite the weekend deaths of seven intelligence agents killed near Baghdad.
"Pulling out can never be an option in the face of terror," Aznar told deputies in an address made just four hours after the Madrid funeral of the agents killed on Saturday afternoon.
"Withdrawing would mean the triumph of the terrorists. It would reinforce the power and the strategy of the terrorists," said Aznar.
He has been criticised by opposition parties for the timing of his address as it came with the country deep in mourning for the slain.
Aznar shrugged off the criticism with a typically dour, if hard-hitting, speech, which drew wild applause from deputies of his ruling rightwing Popular Party.
"The security of all ... would be placed at greater risk" if the coalition forces left Iraq and would mean the sacrifice of the victims would have been "in vain," Aznar insisted.
About 90% of Spaniards opposed the war in Iraq to unseat Saddam Hussein as well as Spanish participation in its increasingly bloody aftermath, and calls by leftwing opposition groups to bring the troops home have reached a crescendo since Saturday.
But Aznar remained deaf to their pleas, despite public shock at gruesome pictures of the dead appearing to be kicked by Iraqi bystanders after their vehicle was hit in a grenade and rocket attack.
Will see Iraq through transition
"We knew we were assuming a risk, that it would be a tough, painful task. It was never presented either to this chamber or the Spanish people as anything else," said Aznar.
He said Spain would see Iraq through a period of transition until it could form its own government.
"This is our ambition and why our forces are there," he said.
Referring to a swathe of other attacks on United States-led forces and United Nations and Red Cross offices in Iraq in recent weeks, Aznar charged that all were the work of "terrorists and not some resistance or liberation force".
Earlier on Tuesday, Aznar attended the funeral of the ambush victims.
Unlike last month's funeral in Rome of 19 Italian victims of a suicide bombing at Nasiriyah, which drew tens of thousands onto the streets, this was a low-key affair, despite the intense emotion of the occasion, with no public participation.
The state funeral, attended by King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia and Crown Prince Felipe, was held at the headquarters of Spain's intelligence agency with journalists banned, although the ceremony was broadcast live on state television.
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