Iraq Says British Troops Have a Year Left
Posted on: Sunday, 13 November 2005, 09:00 CST
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani says he expects Iraq will be ready to replace British troops with its own forces within a year.
In an interview with ITV, Talibani said no one in his country wanted foreign troops there indefinitely, but that any withdrawal would have to be gradual and not immediate.
It would lead to a kind of civil war and ... we will lose what we have done for liberating Iraq from worst kind of dictatorship, he said. Instead of having a democratic, stable Iraq, we will have a civil war in Iraq, we will have troubles in Iraq (that) will affect all the Middle East.
Britain has about 8,000 troops in southern Iraq, and Talibani said he understood the impatience felt there.
British people have full right to ask this, their sons coming back home, especially if they finished their main job, which was the ending of dictatorship, he said.
He also said he expected an upsurge in violence in the run-up to National Assembly elections scheduled for Dec. 15, the BBC said.
Source: United Press International
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