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Iraq divided on US withdrawal
26/04/2007 14:26 - (SA)
Baghdad - Moves in the US Congress to demand a timetable for military withdrawal from Iraq brought mixed reviews from Iraqi members of parliament, some of whom doubted the government's ability to meet US demands for faster political reconciliation.
"The United States is thus admitting it was defeated in Iraq and must withdraw. This should be attributed to the effort and patience of Iraqis," said Saleh Hassan Issa al-Igaili, an MP loyal to Shi'ite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr.
Mahmud Othman, a Kurdish MP, was philosophical about the decision by the Democrats who control Congress.
He said: "They have to abide by public opinion. They are preparing the ground for the next election and that is normal in a democracy."
US Democrats have argued that the proposed withdrawal timetable would prod Iraq's leaders towards political reconciliation, specifically the passage of an equitable oil law and the return of former Baathists to public life.
The House of Representatives approved the bill on Wednesday and the Senate was expected to follow suit in a vote later on Thursday.
'Concerned with reconciliation'
But President George W Bush has vowed to veto the draft legislation, which would order a pullout of US forces from Iraq to begin from as early as October, and in Baghdad many Iraqi politicians remained sceptical.
"After four years, these things have become much more difficult and our problems are much more complicated," said Othman.
"So I don't expect these things to be done as fast as the Americans want."
Others saw the legislative wrangling in the United States as a purely domestic matter.
"It's for local consumption" said Omar Abdul-Sattar Mahmud, a Sunni MP from the Iraqi Islamic Party.
"However they agree or disagree is their business, not that of the Iraqis," he said. "What we are concerned with is that there should be real national reconciliation to break the sectarianism."
- AFP
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