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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Iraqi interior minister sees internal security restored in 18 months |
| 2005-02-08 |
| Iraq's interim Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib said on Monday he believed the country could establish full control of its internal security within 18 months. But the minister said not all of Iraq's neighbours were fully cooperating in helping to seal its borders against foreign fighters seeking to join an insurgency against the U.S.-backed government, including a significant number from Sudan. "I would say within 18 months we will be able to have ... full control of our internal security," Naqib told reporters at a counter-terrorism conference in Saudi Arabia. "But that will depend on a couple of things -- the political situation in Iraq, and then the ministry of defence also have their own schedule," the minister added. Naqib similarly declined to be drawn on when foreign troops might withdraw. "We have agreed that when we have been able to build up our forces and we are able to protect our country and our internal security, we will ask the foreign forces to leave Iraq," he said. Naqib said Iraq was working with its neighbours to stop foreign fighters crossing its borders to join an insurgency which has been raging against the American-backed government and U.S.-led troops since the 2003 war that toppled Saddam Hussein. Without naming any countries, the minister made clear that not all were fully cooperating. "We are coordinating with neighbouring countries -- most of them, not all of them -- to work out this subject," he said. "Some are in agreement 100 percent. Some of them ... we have to work more with them." Iraqi and U.S. officials have complained that Iran and Syria are not doing enough to seal their borders against guerrillas seeking to join the Sunni-led insurgency. Naqib said the largest contingent of foreign fighters taking part in the insurgency was from Sudan, where al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was based for the first half of the 1990s, and were being attracted to Iraq "by money or other reasons." "Maybe they (Sudanese) are 30 percent of the total numbers we have," the minister said. He said Iraqi and coalition forces had captured people "very close" to al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and voiced hope they were getting closer to the Jordanian militant himself. "He is running around the country, he is not staying in one place," the minister added. Naqib said some foreign fighters were just turning up at points along Iraq's thousands of miles (km) of frontiers and attempting to cross, but many were working through contacts inside Iraq who knew routes for smuggling them in. "Most of our border police stations have been destroyed during the war. We're rebuilding it and hopefully we'll be able to control our borders in a very short period of time," he said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |