| Airbornelawyer |
03-17-2004 10:07 |
Poland:
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Prime Minister Leszek Miller said on 15 March that Poland will maintain its contingent of 2,400 troops in Iraq, Polish media reported. Miller was reacting to the suggestion earlier the same day by Spanish Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero that Madrid will pull its 1,300 soldiers out of the 9,000-strong Polish-led division in Iraq by 30 June in the absence of a UN mandate. Miller said such a pullout could be perceived as weakness in the face of terror following last week's bomb attacks in Madrid. President Aleksander Kwasniewski said on 16 March that if Spain decides to withdraw its troops from Iraq, Poland will not send more soldiers to fill the gap. "We are working according to a plan, and we cannot change it from day to day and send troops. We don't have them prepared, to be honest," PAP quoted Kwasniewski as saying.
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The Netherlands:
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The Dutch government said it would not be cowed into withdrawing its 1,100 troops from Iraq and that the attacks should not affect deliberations on extending their mandate. "We cannot leave a country like Iraq on its own," Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said on Dutch television. "Because of terror you can't just say: now we say no to them."
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Czech Republic:
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A host of senior Czech officials and other politicians said on 15 March that they are not considering a withdrawal of Czech soldiers from Iraq in the wake of the 11 March bombings in Madrid, CTK and local dailies reported. "I would not think of such an alternative because I am sure that it is in Europe's interest to stabilize the situation in Iraq. Our participation helps the affair," Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla said, according to CTK. Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda and Interior Minister Stanislav Gross echoed Spidla's statement. Gross questioned whether the new Spanish government's vow to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq without a UN mandate would not send the wrong signals to terrorist groups. The shadow defense minister for the opposition Civic Democratic Party, Petr Necas, said he believes a withdrawal of troops would represent a victory for terrorists. Senior members of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia were virtually alone in praising the Spanish Socialists' warning of a troop withdrawal from Iraq, according to local media. The Czech Republic has deployed dozens of military-police officers to Iraq, has peacekeepers in Kosova, and is currently dispatching troops to Afghanistan.
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Italy:
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In Italy, whose next election is scheduled for 2006, leaders insist the country would be a target even if it hadn't contributed 3,000 troops to Iraq — a commitment the government said it would not change. "Iraq has nothing to do with it. Italy, like all the democratic countries in the world, is a target," Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told the La Repubblica daily. He noted that Morocco has also been hit by terror attacks, and that countries like Germany and France, which opposed war in Iraq, do not consider themselves safe.
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Ukraine:
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Ukraine has 1,650 troops serving under Polish command in Iraq, and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych is "very anxious" about that in light of the Madrid bombings, his spokesman said Tuesday. But Ukrainian officials made clear there were no plans to pull out.
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Denmark:
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Denmark's prime minister said on Wednesday his country would not cave in to pressure from "terrorists" by pulling its 500 troops out of Iraq. "The government has no plans to withdraw Danish forces from Iraq. That would be a victory for the terrorists and be a fatal signal that terrorism pays," Anders Fogh Rasmussen said during a debate in parliament. [Note typical Reuters "news" agency scare-quotes around terrorists. Fuckwads.]
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Jordan:
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Jordan's King Abdullah II warned of ethnic strife in Iraq and urged the world to prevent such violence, a Turkish newspaper reported. "If a stable state is established in Iraq and things are put on track, we can say that overthrowing Saddam was right. But if a civil war erupts and Iraq is divided, we will know it was a mistake," he told the daily Hurriyet.
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Saudi Arabia:
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There will be no letup in the Kingdom’s fight against terrorism, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said yesterday, a day after security forces gunned down two terror suspects including a leader of the Al-Qaeda network in the Gulf region.
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Bulgaria:
Quote:
Bulgaria will not increase the number of its peacekeepers in Iraq to make up for a possible withdrawal of Spanish troops, a top military officer said on Wednesday. ... "We are not ready to deploy more troops in Iraq," Bulgaria's chief of staff Nikola Kolev told reporters. "If Spain takes a decision to pull out of Iraq and other countries decide not to send more soldiers, there would be a redistribution of duties and a bigger work load," he said.... "We cannot do anything else. But we...have no intention of withdrawing from our responsibilities in Iraq," [a Defense Ministry spokeswoman] said.
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