Germany says 'no' to US request for military trainers in Iraq
Iraq-Germany, Politics, 6/9/2006

Germany-Iraq-US Germany will not send military trainers or troops to Iraq, deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg told the media in Berlin following a report that US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had requested German military trainers in the war-torn Middle East country.

"No German soldiers, military trainers or experts will be sent to Iraq," stressed Steg.

The German official pointed out that his country was already taking part in the training of Iraqi officers and policemen in Germany and the United Arab Emirates.

A report in the daily Berlin Zeitung said that Rumsfeld had pressured his German counterpart Franz Josef Jung to send military trainers to Iraq.

The center-leftist government of former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder strongly opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, leading to a major fallout in the relations between Berlin and Washington.

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