Iraq appeals for help from world community
Iraq’s foreign minister has called on the world community to provide expertise and more financial help as ministers met ahead of a key international conference on Iraq.
Hoshyar Zebari said yesterday that his country needs help from the European Union, the US, Russia, China, Japan and other key powers as his transitional government embarks on the daunting tasks of implementing reforms.
“We need assistance for the political process, for the constitution, conducting a referendum, and for holding elections from the United Nations and other member states ... to enhance civil society” in Iraq, Zebari said.
He also urged Iraq’s neighbours, especially Syria, to cooperate more to help stop foreign extremists from crossing into Iraq.
The foreign minister also visited NATO headquarters to review the alliance’s efforts to help train his country’s military. NATO plans to expand its training operation from the Green Zone in Baghdad to an academy outside the city by September, with a goal of turning out 1,000 officers a year for Iraq’s 170,000-strong security forces.
The foreign minister said a withdrawal of some foreign troops early next year would be “understandable” as Iraq’s own military becomes more able to defend the country. “The capacity of our forces would be better on the ground, better trained, better equipped” by then, he said.
Baghdad requested today’s conference to seek advice from the international community on boosting security, establishing rule of law and reconstruction. Some 80 governments and institutions have sent senior officials.
The gathering also gives the six-week-old Iraqi government a first chance to share its plans for political and economic reform as it writes a constitution and prepares for elections of a full-term government in December.
“I expect the international community to express strong support for the Iraqi government and the people of Iraq, and by international community I also mean the neighbours of Iraq,” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday.
“We are all interested in seeing a stable Iraq and we all have a responsibility to support them and work with them to attain that state.”
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