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Britain

Blair will be remembered like Churchill: Jaafari

2007-02-26

British Prime Minister Tony Blair will go down in history like his World War II predecessor Winston Churchill, former Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al Jaafari told The Sunday Telegraph newspaper. Jafaari, who stepped down in April last year, told the British weekly that Blair’s backing for the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq will be judged comparable to Churchill standing up to Nazi Germany’s leader Adolf Hitler. He said that ousting Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein from power would be something future generations of Britons would be “proud of.” “What Tony Blair has done in Iraq is something that is very important, and history will remind us of that. He has helped the Iraqi people to get rid of Saddam Hussein,” Jaafari said. “Unfortunately, I see the situation in the West and how they deal with the Iraqi crisis now. But future generations, I think, will see Tony Blair’s decision to get rid of Saddam Hussein in the same way as Winston Churchill got rid of Hitler.” He added: “We know that he (Saddam) had weapons of mass destruction because he used them in 1988. It is not a question of what he didn’t have, it is what he did have. That is what the proof should be.” Jaafari said he had seen no evidence that Iran was behind Shia attacks in Iraq.

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Iraq

Talks to Form New Iraqi Government postponed

2006-01-08

Talks to form a new Iraqi government have been postponed until after the Adha holiday “because a number of politicians taking part in the talks are currently performing Hajj [pilgrimage]”, according to Fuad Masum, a leading member of Iraqi President Jalal Talbani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, who participated in the ongoing discussions between the Kurdish Alliance List and other Iraqi political parties. Talbani had received Iyad Allawi, former Iraqi premier, on Friday, at his office in Baghdad . A source close to the president told Asharq al Awsat the “meeting was part of the exerted effort by the president as the sponsor of the political process to reach a national unity government, in which all Iraqi groups from across the political spectrum will participate, and to resolve problems by national consensus.” National unity governments don't have a real good record of being effective. I think they're trying to please everybody, and they're going to end up pleasing nobody. The Shiites are going to feel cheated, and the Sunnis are going to feel like they shot their way into power, which means they'll do the same thing every time they can't have their way in the future. For his part, the head of the National Iraqi List underlined the president’s proposals as “the right solution for political stability in the country” and pointed out the talks focused on general principles and not details concerning the formation of a new government. Masum hinted, in a statement to Asharq al Awsat, from his offices in Sulaymaniyah, in Iraqi Kurdistan, that the “Kurdish leadership is exerting its efforts to include Allawi’s list in the next government” and expressed his opinion that the former premier “might refuse to participate in person but members of his list” could take part. Allawi's not going to satisfy the Muslim Scholars, though. Way too secular for them... The meetings held in Iraqi Kurdistan, whether in al Sulaymaniyah or in Irbil, “were not official but bilateral talks to share the views of two of the largest blocs in the next Iraqi parliament, the Kurdish bloc and the Iraqi Coalition,” Masum told Asharq al Awsat, adding that, “Our brothers in the Iraqi political blocs did not come to Kurdistan on official visits but were welcomed by the Kurdish leadership.” Did they ride the horses they came to trade? “It is well known that relations between the Kurdish leadership, represented by President Talbani and Masud Barzani, the president of Kurdistan region and head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, are strong, deep-rooted and historic. We have no sensitivity towards anyone. The Kurdish bloc will be influential in the next parliament, since it won 60 seats. Its will therefore have a say in the discussion to form the next government,” he said. The Kurdish leader went on to say the “Coalition will nominate the next prime minister because it is the biggest bloc in parliament. We do have no objections to their nominations which will be discussed during official talks with all parties. The strongest candidates for this post are the outgoing Prime Minister Ibrahim al Jaafari followed by Vice President Adil Abdul Mahdi.” Masum also indicated that the Kurdish bloc intended to seek control of one of the two chief posts- the president and prime minister- should the Coalition not agree one a single candidate for the post of premier. It would also seek to control the foreign minister portfolio and other ministries.

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Down Under

US announces plans to bomb Australia

2005-11-18

Made you look GIANT American strategic bombers will practise long-range raids on Australia under an agreement enabling the US to "project power" into the region. The bombers will hit the Delamere bombing range in the Northern Territory under an agreement signed yesterday at the Australia-United States ministerial summit in Adelaide. While demonstrators outside the tightly guarded Adelaide City Hall chanted for an end to involvement in Iraq, Defence Minister Robert Hill and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer signed a deal with US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and US Deputy Secretary of State Bob Zoellick on closer defence and security ties. They also revealed they were looking for ways to link Australia's Jindalee Over-The-Horizon radar network into the proposed US anti-ballistic missile system. And the Shoalwater Bay training area in Queensland will be upgraded for joint exercises. Senator Hill said Australia had not provided support for US strategic bombers for some time. He said the US was going through a transformation in the region, "which means it does not necessarily have to have the current mass up front but be able to project power from further afield". Training will start in the new year and involve bombers travelling a considerable distance to use the ranges and flying home without landing. Others would land and use facilities at Darwin. Likely these will be flying out of Guam and Diego Garcia, as well as a few very long range missions from the States. The Australian ministers also said they had not received from Iraq any official indication the Government wanted Australia to withdraw its troops from the southern al-Muthanna province. A spokesman for Iraq's Prime Minister, Ibrahim al Jaafari, said this week Australians were no longer needed in al-Muthanna. There are 450 Australian soldiers there protecting Japanese engineers involved in reconstruction and training Iraqi troops. Mr Downer suggested that when that work was done the Australians might take on another role in Iraq. And Prime Minister John Howard also refused to rule out redeploying the troops to another region of Iraq. But he said it was too early to judge whether the province could be managed by fledgling Iraqi security forces. Australia's formal commitment of troops to the region was still scheduled to last until May. "I am not going to rule anything out 
 we will stay there while it is in the interests of achieving our goals, and that is a more secure Iraq where democracy is emerging," he said before the APEC leaders' summit in Busan, South Korea. "If we were asked to go by the Iraqi Government, we would obviously go. But we have not been asked to go . . and I did not interpret the comments made by his spokesman 
 as a request from the Iraqi Government to go," Mr Howard said. Meanwhile, Mr Rumsfeld said Australian terror suspect David Hicks was receiving excellent treatment at Guantanamo Bay. He dismissed allegations of mistreatment of prisoners at the US naval base in Cuba. Hicks, 30, has been held at Guantanamo Bay since his capture with Taliban fighters in Afghanistan in late 2001 after the September 11 attacks in the United States. In an affidavit released last year, the Adelaide-born Muslim convert said prisoners were beaten while blindfolded and handcuffed, terrorised by dogs and forced to take drugs. He also alleged he was sexually abused during two 10-hour beatings on a US warship. But Mr Rumsfeld said there was no mistreatment of detainees and this view was supported by the Red Cross. Hicks was to be the first of nine detainees to face trial by special military commissions. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder by an unprivileged belligerent and aiding the enemy.

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Iraq

Talbani Orders Release of Saddam's half brother for Treatment

2005-11-01

Iraqi President Jalal Talbani ordered the release of Saddam Hussein’s half brother, Barzan al Tikriti from prison to receive treatment for his cancer. The request came in response to a letter published exclusively by Asharq al Awsat in which Tkriti appealed to world leaders to free him. In a statement broadcast in Baghdad , Talbani said,” The Iraqi President Jalal Talbani, after examining the plea by Iraqi citizen Mr. Barzan al Tkriti, expresses his sympathy to his request, in the name of human rights which call for everyone to receive medical treatment when needed and the historic relations that bind our families together and in respect of the personal friendship between us that existed in the past. The President urges the Prime Minister [Ibrahim al Jaafari] to use all his powers to release Bazan al Tikriti from prison and allow him hospital treatment for his cancer.” I certainly hope it's terminal.

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Iraq-Jordan

Ghazi al Yawar given presidency

2004-06-01

Governing Council leader Ghazi al Yawar has been given the job of Iraq’s new president.He was appointed after US-backed Adnan Pachachi turned the job down. The choice had been between 81-year-old Mr Pachachi and al Yawar but there had also been talk that a third surprise candidate may have been nominated. UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has confirmed al Yawar as the choice. In Mosul, al Yawer’s hometown, crowds swept into the streets to celebrate the news, cheering and firing weapons into the air. American soldiers there appealed for calm. He will be supported by two vice presidents, who have been named as Ibrahim al Jaafari and Rowsch Shaways... Meanwhile the jihadis planned a welcome boom or two IRAQ BLASTS: 25 DEAD At least 25 people have been killed in a series of explosions in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, local police have said. The blasts took place near the headquarters of a Kurdish party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Reports indicated that at least three security guards were among those killed. Police at the scene said that in addition to the deaths, at least 20 people had been wounded. Early reports had indicated that the attacks were centred on the Green Zone headquarters of the US-led Coalition. The Kurdish HQ is located near the Iraqi Foreign Ministry and an entrance to the Green Zone...

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