Talibani fears Iraqi civil war after US withdrawal

Despite the increased voices demanding the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq, according to several local, Arab and international statements, the Iraqi President Jalal al-Talibani considered that any early withdrawal for the coalition forces "from Iraq will be catastrophic and will lead to a civil war with heavy consequences on the Middle East as a whole."

The Iraqi president said in an interview with the ITV broadcast on Sunday evening, the Iraqi president said that the early withdrawal "will lead to civil war and we will loose what we had accomplished to liberate Iraq from the worst kind of dictatorship." He stressed that the Iraqi forces have to be prepared to assume missions from the British forces in the south, in the surrounding of al-Basra by the fall of next year.

Talibani also called on the coalition countries led by the USA to maintain a different gradual withdrawal in a close coordination with the Iraqi authorities. At the internal level, he expressed his fear over the escalation of the acts of violence before the legislative elections due on December 15th. He considered that the rebels will not succeed in affecting the result.

However, Adel Abdul Mahdi, the Iraqi vice president, said that it is likely that the US forces and the coalition forces will reduce the number of soldiers in Iraq next year. Abdul Mahdi made this statement during a visit to Dearborn city near Detroit, Michigan, during which he had met with the US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and White House officials.