 
CHANNELS SPACEWAR WIRE MILITARY SPACE UAV NEWS MILITARY COMMS CYBERWARS MISSILE NEWS RAYGUNS TERRORWARS SPACEDAILY TERRADAILY MARSDAILY SPACE TRAVEL SPACEMART SPACE DATABASE  SERVICES |  
NATO-member Spain on Monday ruled out playing any role in Iraq, hours after the alliance promised to help train the Iraqi army to calm the violence-wracked country. "The Spanish government does not foreseee any participation in the process under way in Iraq, and in no circumstances any participation on Iraqi territory," Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told reporters here. He was replying to a question on whether Spain would help train the fledgling Iraqi army. Spain last month completed withdrawal of its 1,400-strong military contingent in Iraq, fulfilling a pledge by the Socialist prime minister who came to power after a surprise general election victory on March 14. "My political position on this issue is very coherent," Zapatero said after NATO leaders pledged at a summit here to provide "full cooperation" to the new Iraqi government and to help train its soldiers. The phrasing of the NATO agreement specifically left it open for such training to occur inside or outside Iraq -- a sop to France and Germany, which opposed the US-led invasion and have said they are unwilling to send troops into Iraq. Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said earlier in June that his country would not send any of its troops back to Iraq "no matter under what umbrella." The blanket refusal came after US President George W. Bush called at a G8 summit for greater NATO involvement in Iraq. The Spanish troops had been sent into Iraq by Zapatero's conservative predecessor Jose Maria Aznar, who was a strong backer of the US-led war in Iraq. Aznar was defeated in an election that came just three days after the March 11 bomb attacks in Madrid, which killed almost 200 people. His Popular Party (PP) immediately blamed the attacks on its arch enemy, armed Basque separatist group ETA. And it continued to do so for days even when evidence was emerging that the atrocities were carried out by Islamic extremists in retaliation for the government's support for the US-led war on Iraq. This led to accusations from the Socialists that the PP tried to hide the truth about the attacks, in a bid to deflect criticism of its stance on Iraq long enough to secure re-election in the March 14 vote. Zapatero's government made any maintaining of Spanish troops there conditional on the United Nations taking total charge over the political and military situation in Iraq after the handover of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government. A UN Security Council approved unanimously this month authorised the handover of power and spelled out a UN role to help prepare for Iraqi elections. But it did not authorise the UN to take charge politically or militarily. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links
|
|
| The contents herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2002 - SpaceDaily. AFP Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |