British troops will start leaving Iraq next May under detailed plans, drawn up by London and Washington, to be presented next month to the Iraqi parliament, the Observer newspaper reported yesterday.
Quoting senior military sources, it said the blueprint "will lay out a point-by-point `road map' for military disengagement by multinational forces," with the first steps possibly going into effect soon after the December polls.
It said Britain has already "privately" informed Japan of its plans to begin withdrawing from southern Iraq next May, a move that would make it impossible for some 500 Japanese troops in the sector to remain.
There was no immediate reaction from Prime Minister Tony Blair's government to the report, which appeared in time for the start of the annual conference of his Labor Party in Brighton, on England's south coast.
Speculation about the future of British forces in Iraq intensified this week after the arrest by Iraqi police of two undercover British soldiers who were subsequently rescued by comrades in the main southern city of Basra.
A YouGov opinion poll for Five News television, released yesterday after several thousand people joined an anti-war march in London, found that 57 percent of respondents thought British forces should pull out.
The Observer quoted Defense Secretary John Reid as saying in an interview that a pullout strategy was contingent on ongoing efforts to establish a permanent democratic government in Iraq.
"The two things I want to insist about the timetable is that it is not an event, but a process, and that it will be a process that takes place at different speeds in different parts of the country," he said.
"I have said before that I believe that it could begin in some parts of the country as early as next July. It is not a deadline, but it is where we might be, and I honestly still believe we could have the conditions to begin a handover."
The Sunday Telegraph offered an alternative version, saying it has learned that the Ministry of Defence "is still planning to deploy large numbers of troops" until at least January 2008.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS