'No goodwill for coalition'

2005-12-11 14:03

London - Prince Hassan of Jordan said in a British Sunday newspaper that the US-led coalition in Iraq had run out of goodwill and must change tack to prevent growing instability in the Middle East.

The brother of the late king Hussein and an influential Arab leader, Hassan wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that the December 15 Iraqi elections would do little to solve the problem of the country's Sunni Muslim minority feeling isolated.

Nor will they end the insurgency bloodshed, he wrote, calling for the US-led coalition to change its course in the region.

"The core of the Iraqi insurgency has too much support, both active and passive, to be defeated militarily," the prince wrote.

"Only the horror of an all-out civil war, with perhaps a million more dead, could bring an uncertain end by arms to this ongoing tragedy.

"Nor will insurgents be drawn into politics by inertia. Dialogue, negotiated agreement and compromise must be the tools used to bring Iraq's fragmented representation to the table.

"Only then can Iraqi nationalists be freed from a temporary and forced alliance with the radicals who claim to represent them."

Hassan wrote that Iraqi liberation now meant freedom not from former president Saddam Hussein, but from the threat of civil war and the presence of foreign troops.

"Many Iraqis welcomed the arrival of the coalition, and with good reason. But the currency of goodwill was quickly spent," he wrote.

"Security must be a vital part of nation-building, but it must also go beyond mere knee-jerk reaction to terrorism.

"In the absence of a contract of good governance, the coalition today enjoys very little public support in Iraq."

Hassan said the coalition's role was principally to help the government fight the insurgency and prevent all-out civil war, but many Sunnis saw them as "partisan, even sponsors of civil war" when fighting alongside government forces.

He added that if American troops were to stay in the Middle East, then it should be on the basis of reasonable transparency and collective security, for instance through a regional stability pact.

"I hope it is not too late," he added.

- AFP