Straw: American, British forces in Iraq inflame the armed rebellion
Iraq-UK, Politics, 8/2/2005

The British foreign office secretary Jack Straw admitted that the presence of the British and American forces in Iraq inflames what he called the armed rebellion in this country, where scores of Iraqis are killed almost daily since its invasion in March 2003.

Straw said in an interview with the British Financial Times issued on Tuesday that "contrary to the situation in Afghanistan, though we are part of the security solution there ( Iraq) we are also part of the problem."

Meantime, The British foreign office secretary said that the completion of the Iraqi drafted constitution by the fall of the set date of August 15 will pave the way for the withdrawal of foreign forces.

Asked by a journalist that there has been "some contradictory signals about whether or not the Iraqis think that they can actually have a constitution ready by August 15th.Ê I know it's the U.S. position that they do want to be ready by August 15th.Ê My question is -- there have been some suggestions that what could be ready on August 15th is an incomplete document that leaves other questions for a bit later.Ê Would this be acceptable to the United States?" The US Department Of State Acting Spokesman, Tom Casey, said yesterday "Well, first of all, let me just step back a minute and just say that, again, this is an Iraq-led process.Ê I know that the committee continues its work.Ê We certainly welcome public statements by Iraq's leaders and heads of the drafting committee of their intent to actually meet the August 15th deadline.Ê And we do think it's very important that the drafters be able to meet that timetable and, certainly, we appreciate the statements, as I said, that Prime Minister Jaafari and Talabani have said that clearly support completion by this date.Ê But again, the importance here is that this is an Iraqi process and the Iraqis are going to make the decisions as to what the shape and scope of their new constitution looks like and we are supportive of that process.Ê We've certainly been engaged in discussing it with them and encouraging them forward, but I'm not going to try and judge what they may or may not come up with before a document's been produced."

Both the Iraqi Interim government and its American allies consider the constitution as a basic part in any democratic process. They hope it will help to end the attacks of the armed groups and accelerate the withdrawal of the American and British forces.

Previous Stories:
  Iraq war is behind the attacks on London, Brittish poll   (7/25/2005)
  CNN: Partial British withdrawal from Iraq   (7/18/2005)
  Guardian: Robin Cook on London explosions: our troops are part of the problem   (7/16/2005)

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