WASHINGTON — Middle East allies of the United States are expressing concern over the prospect of a rapid withdrawal from Iraq.
Several allies of the United States questioned recommendations by the
Iraq Study Group. The bipartisan commission called for a withdrawal of
almost all U.S. combat forces from Iraq by early 2008.
"Just picking and leaving is going to create a huge vacuum," Saudi
ambassador to the U.S., Prince Turki Al Faisal, said. "It would be
inadvisable in the extreme for the U.S. simply to pack up its forces and
withdraw."
Turki addressed the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia on Dec. 6,
hours after the ISG released its 160-page report. The panel urged Saudi
Arabia and other U.S. allies in the region to help stabilize Iraq, Middle East Newsline reported.
But Turki warned that a rapid U.S. withdrawal could do the opposite. The
ambassador said Iraq could break down into Kurdish, Shi'ite and Sunni zones.
"The U.S. must underline its support for the Maliki government because
there is no other game in town," Turki said. "We have never accentuated one
sector over another or one ethnicity over another."
In late November, Saudi security consultant Nawaf Obaid, an adviser to
Turki, said Riyad would not abandon the Sunni community in Iraq. In a column
in the Washington Post, Obaid said the Saudi leadership would intervene to
protect the Sunni minority. Later, Turki said Obaid was dismissed from the
Saudi embassy after the column.
Another U.S. ally warned against an American troop redeployment to
northern Iraq. Turkey said the addition of U.S. soldiers in northern
Iraq would result in friction with the Turkish military.
"I believe that repositioning any U.S. bases would be a wrong step by
the United States and a wrong choice by the Kurds in northern Iraq," former
Turkish ambassador to Washington, Faruk Logoglu, said. "It would be a
constant source of tension and problems. It would give no comfort to
anyone."
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan agreed. Erdogan also expressed
opposition to the U.S. deployment in northern Iraq, part of which has been
claimed by Turkey.
"I personally find the shifting of U.S. forces to northern Iraq to be
wrong," Erdogan said. "There is no problem in northern Iraq. The United
States should keep its soldiers in areas with problems."
Turkey has sought U.S. cooperation to end the Kurdish insurgency
presence in northern Iraq. Representatives of Turkey and the United States
were scheduled to meet on Dec. 11 in Europe to discuss the PKK threat.
Israel has dismissed the prospect that the Bush administration would
implement ISG recommendations to pressure the Jewish state to withdraw from
the Golan Heights, captured in the 1967 war with Syria. Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert said he rejects the ISG's link of Iraq and the
Arab-Israeli conflict.
"The attempt to create a linkage between the Iraqi issue and the Mideast
issue — we have a different view," Olmert said on Thursday. "To the best of
my knowledge, President Bush, throughout the recent years, also had a
different view on this."
