Bush 'brainwashed' Blair
2006-12-20 08:12
New York - British Prime Minister Tony
Blair was in favour of announcing a timetable to pull troops out
of Iraq, but was "brainwashed" out of it by President George W
Bush, Iraq's vice president said on Tuesday.
Vice president Tareq al-Hashemi told New York's Council on
Foreign Relations that when he spoke with Blair about three
months ago, the British leader was supportive of his appeal for
the United States and Britain to say when they would withdraw.
"I had just convinced him," Hashemi said. "He promised he
was going to discuss the subject with President Bush, but at
the end of the day, it's quite unfortunate, that your president
(made) some sort of brainwashing of Mr Blair."
But Hashemi also said any withdrawal of troops should be
conditional on US training of Iraq's security forces.
Blair, who visited Baghdad on Sunday, defended on Tuesday
his nation's close US alliance in response to an influential
British think tank's report that found the relationship has
damaged Britain's credibility in the Middle East.
Hashemi, in comments to Reuters after his Council on
Foreign Relations address, said that Blair had been
"open-minded" about announcing a troop pull-out.
"He promised me to take this message to Mr Bush, in fact,
and he said 'I'm going to support that'," he said.
Hashemi said announcing a timetable for the withdrawal of
American, British and other troops would help bring together
warring Sunni and Shi'ite factions.
"The problem is the timetable withdrawal. If you announce
that tomorrow, the problem is going to be mitigated," he said.
"The American troops, the American administration should be
committed with a timetable conditional withdrawal from Iraq.
This is very important."
But Hashemi added that the United States had made a
commitment to Iraq, any therefore withdrawal of troops should
be conditional on the training of Iraq's own security forces.
He blamed the sectarian tensions in his country on "foreign
interference".
The Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel of former senior
US officials, recommended this month that Bush withdraw most
US forces from combat in Iraq by early 2008 and focus instead
on training Iraqi forces.
The report has increased pressure on Bush to find a way out
of a war that started with the US-led invasion in March,
2003, and has killed more than 2 900 US troops and tens of
thousands of Iraqis.