Monday, April 30, 2007
Iraq to proceed with security reconstruction with or without U.S.
Security
(Azzaman) - Iraq will go ahead with its plans to build its own armed forces and reinstate security despite U.S. warnings of timetables and benchmarks, National Security Adviser said. Mowafaq al-Rubai said Iraq’s battle against Qaeda-related groups in Iraq will continue whether the Americans stayed or left.
“The Americans have their timetables and are governed by schedules but these things do not concern us,” he said in an interview. “We will proceed with the building of the armed forces and the institutions of a modern state and revise the constitution. “What others say is not a matter of concern for us. America addresses its own people and we address our own. “They (Americans) say this is the last battle to beat Qaeda and we say to them it is the first battle. We have our schedules and they have theirs,” Rubai said.
He said the government was involved in ‘serious negotiations’ with ‘certain influential armed groups’ and was trying its best to engage them in the political process. Rubai did not say which groups were involved but reiterated there would be no compromise with terrorist groups like Qaeda. He said the security plan now in its third month has ‘achieved a great deal’ despite the surge in car bomb attacks.
Prior to the start of the plan more than 100 bodies were dumped on the streets of Baghdad. “Now the figure has dropped by nearly 90 percent,” he said. “Killing on identity has almost disappeared in Baghdad and this is a victory by itself,” he said. He said the building of concrete walls to isolate and separate certain quarters of Baghdad on sectarian grounds was ‘to protect the people’ and that more such walls will be constructed in the future.
“The Americans have their timetables and are governed by schedules but these things do not concern us,” he said in an interview. “We will proceed with the building of the armed forces and the institutions of a modern state and revise the constitution. “What others say is not a matter of concern for us. America addresses its own people and we address our own. “They (Americans) say this is the last battle to beat Qaeda and we say to them it is the first battle. We have our schedules and they have theirs,” Rubai said.
He said the government was involved in ‘serious negotiations’ with ‘certain influential armed groups’ and was trying its best to engage them in the political process. Rubai did not say which groups were involved but reiterated there would be no compromise with terrorist groups like Qaeda. He said the security plan now in its third month has ‘achieved a great deal’ despite the surge in car bomb attacks.
Prior to the start of the plan more than 100 bodies were dumped on the streets of Baghdad. “Now the figure has dropped by nearly 90 percent,” he said. “Killing on identity has almost disappeared in Baghdad and this is a victory by itself,” he said. He said the building of concrete walls to isolate and separate certain quarters of Baghdad on sectarian grounds was ‘to protect the people’ and that more such walls will be constructed in the future.
Labels: Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, armed groups, Iraq, Iraqi security forces, negotiations, U.S.
