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EU lawmaker calls for UN force in Iraq

* UK says security situation will determine length of military mission

STRASBOURG: A senior European Parliament lawmaker called on Wednesday for US-led foreign troops in Iraq to be replaced by a United Nations force but EU president Britain responded sceptically.

In a report on EU-Iraq relations, Greek conservative Giorgos Dimitrakopoulos said the key to reversing the disastrous security situation two years after the US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein was to phase out the western military presence.

“The problem is that foreign troops are still in the country. I think it is going to be critical that they be replaced by a UN peacekeeping force,” he told the EU assembly, acknowledging it could not be done overnight.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the legislature he agreed that the security situation was poor and that over time, foreign troops needed to be reduced and replaced by Iraqi security forces, which were gradually being trained.

“On the issue of whether there could be a UN blue-hatted force, I have no difficulty about that in principle. The only issue is actually encouraging other countries to come forward. Whether we can achieve that ... remains to be seen,” he said.

“But on the overall objective of overseas forces, coalition forces, being reduced and then leaving, and the Iraqis taking full control for themselves, we are absolutely in full agreement,” Straw added.

He acknowledged that the UN mandate of the current multinational force expires in December unless it is renewed, and that the Iraqi government could ask foreign troops to leave at any time and they would do so immediately.

While both Straw and Dimitrakopoulos, as well as External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, urged the parliament to set aside past differences over the rights and wrongs of the Iraq war, many members called that an illusion.

Speakers on the left and centre of the assembly said the US-led invasion, justified by the alleged presence of weapons of mass destruction that were never found, was the root cause of the current violence and kidnappings in Iraq.

Ferrero-Waldner said the only way for Iraq to establish security was to address the causes of the violence by adopting an inclusive constitution, giving the Sunni Arab population a fair place, gaining the cooperation of Iraq’s neighbours.

The EU was preparing to open a representative office in Baghdad under the protection of the British embassy there and had begun training Iraqi police and justice officials as part of a growing cooperation programme, she said.

Straw also said the EU was delivering “an impressive and comprehensive programme of assistance to the government and people of Iraq” and praised the EU’s 12-month rule-of-law mission to Iraq. “The mission began training Iraqi police, judiciary and penitentiary officials yesterday and is making a valuable contribution to the Iraqi government’s efforts to increase its authority and entrench the rule of law,” he said. agencies

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