| 2008: US launches plan to boost Iraqi army's capability |
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September 23, 2008 Baghdad: The United States and Iraq's defence ministry have embarked on a major plan to bolster the country's military capability substantially by 2020, Gulf News has learnt. In an exclusive interview, Babaker Zebari, chief of staff of the Iraqi army, said by the end of 2010 the army, which now has 14 units comprising about 263,000 soldiers, will no longer be exclusively used to tackle the insurgency but will also be involved in national defence, which requires much greater resources and technology. The plan involves building an army as strong as those of Iran, Turkey and Syria by the end of 2020, Zebari said. "The us and Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) have committed to supplying Iraq with sophisticated weaponry aimed at improving its defences," he added. Weaponry The army chief said the defence forces will be armed with jet fighters, artillery, rocket systems, combat helicopters and advanced transport aircraft and warships, which is a significant input for a deterrent army capable of facing any war in the region. Zebari said Iraq has secured a deal under which Italy will provide six warships. Four will be delivered soon and the other two will be deployed near Basra in the Arabian Gulf. A secret study at the Iraqi Defence Ministry said: "The interest of the US over the medium term is to build an Iraqi army with tremendous regional capability and some quality offensive weapons, on condition that this capacity will not be used to intervene in a war between the Arab countries and Israel. The US strategic goal is to build a peer Iraqi army and perhaps superior to Iran in the next ten years." Support for strategy The study revealed that the Sunnis support the US strategy in which the Iraqi army would confront Iran, of course, and the Kurds also support it against any Turkish aggression in northern Iraq, but the Shiites in the country were more confused about this strategy, which they feel will most likely be directed against Iran. The study said Israel opposes the existence of a strong Iraqi army and the Israeli lobby in the United States has expressed its rejection of this strategy for fear that the Iraqi army might some day be used against Israel. Iraqi Parliament Approves Election Law September 24, 2008 After months of infighting, Iraq's parliament passed a crucial law Wednesday that will allow most of the country to hold provincial elections early next year. The law is seen as a key step toward bringing under-represented groups back into Iraqi politics, particularly Sunnis in Anbar province who have recently turned against violence and al Qaida extremists. The United States and the United Nations have been urging Iraqi politicians for months to agree on a law, hoping that holding elections soon will help solidify recent, tenuous security gains here. A contentious debate over who will control Kirkuk , an oil-rich northern city, was the main sticking point delaying an agreement. Legislators didn't resolve that issue Wednesday and instead set it aside for later. Still, the passage of the law means that elections to choose provincial and local leaders in most of Iraq can move forward. U.N. officials, who will organize the vote, vowed that country will be ready for balloting by the end of January. Only elections in Kirkuk will be postponed. Though Kirkuk is now populated by Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen, Kurdish officials argue the city belongs to Kurdistan , a semi-autonomous northern region of Iraq that borders Turkey , Iran and Syria . Kirkuk is historically Kurdish, but under Saddam Hussein , the government forced out the Kurds and repopulated the city with Arabs. After the U.S. invasion, Kurds pushed Arabs from the city. Sunni Arab and Turkomen legislators had proposed sharing power with Kurds in Kirkuk , fearing that they will lose a stake in the city and its enormous oil wealth if regular elections are held there. To allow voting to move forward elsewhere, legislators agreed Wednesday to form a parliamentary committee that would review the Kirkuk dispute. The committee is to make its recommendations by March 31 , and the parliament will then decide how to deal with the city. Legislators set a deadline for elections in the rest of the country by the end of January. To become law, Iraq's three-man presidency council, headed by President Jalal Talabani , a Kurd, must approve the elections measure. Parliament passed an elections law earlier this year that called for power sharing among Arabs, Turkomen and Kurds, which the presidency council quickly rejected. Staffan de Mistura, the special representative for Iraq for the U.N. Secretary General, congratulated parliament after the vote, calling Wednesday "a good day for Iraq and a good day for democracy." "It's been a very delicate issue and it's taken a lot of time, but the outcome is what matters," de Mistura said. "We will work for a process that is fair for minorities. It's not going to be easy because it's a complicated issue, but you've already been doing complicated things and we are here to help you." In a written statement, President Bush praised parliament. "Nothing is more central to a functioning democracy than free and fair elections," the statement said. "Today's action demonstrates the ability of Iraq's leaders to work together for the good of the Iraqi people and represents further progress on political reconciliation." However, Tania Talat , a Kurdish member of parliament, said the election law is a blow to the people of Kirkuk , adding that she only agreed to it because it was the right choice for the rest of Iraq . "The biggest loser in this is Kirkuk ," Talat said. "The people of Kirkuk should be allowed to vote without limits, as everyone else will. We will just have to wait to see what the committee's report says." The committee that will take up the Kirkuk issue will include Arabs, Kurds, Turkomen and Christians from both parliament and the Kirkuk city council. It won't include anyone from the Kurdistan regional government, as Kurds had sought. Wednesday's vote follows months of bitter fighting among parliament members that at points sent Kurdish leaders storming out of session. What pushed the majority of Iraq's legislators to finally agree on a law was not immediately clear. Regardless, most hailed the vote as a reason to celebrate. "We wrote what the Iraqi people wanted, not what the politicians wanted," parliament speaker Mahmoud al Mashhadani said. "This is important." Ahmed Ubaidi, an Arab member of Kirkuk's city council, said he welcomes the new law and will help the Kirkuk committee to do its job. "We hope to have the committee here soon to lift all the trespassing that has taken place in Kirkuk ," he said. Aside from the Kirkuk issue, the law passed Wednesday calls for a committee that will work with the UN to figure out how to achieve representation for Christians and other minorities on the provincial councils. The measure also specifies that a quarter of council representatives must be women and that no campaign materials can be posted in government buildings, mosques or churches. With the election law decided, parliament will turn next to the tasks of adopting legislation governing the distribution of Iraq's oil wealth and the role Islam should play in country's government. In other news on Wednesday in Iraq , gunmen ambushed and 27 international policemen and eight anti- al Qaida fighters in Diyala province. Three high-ranking officers were among the dead, police officials said. |