Spanish Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said yesterday his position on withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq remained firm despite an appeal from US President George W. Bush to stand by the US.
"My position is the same. I have explained it throughout the election campaign," he told Onda Cero radio. "I will listen to Mr. Bush but my position is very clear and very firm."
Zapatero has pledged to withdraw troops from Iraq by July 1 if the UN does not take charge there.
PHOTO: AP
"The occupation is a fiasco. There have been almost more deaths after the war than during the war," he said. "The occupying forces have not allowed the United Nations to take control of the situation."
On Tuesday, Bush called on Spain and other allies in Iraq not to yield to pressure from al-Qaeda by pulling their troops from the coalition occupying the country.
"It's essential that we remain side-by-side with the Iraqi people," Bush said. "Al-Qaeda wants us out of Iraq."
White House spokesman Scott McClellan cautioned Spaniards and others against sending a "terrible message" by letting "terrorists" influence their elections and policies.
The White House said it may seek a new UN resolution before it hands back sovereignty to Iraqis by the end of June to persuade allies such as Spain not to withdraw.
With Europe struggling to digest the consequences of what may be the first al-Qaeda-style attack in the West since the Sept. 11, 2001, strikes, France, Britain and South Korea said they were targets for Islamic militants.
Outgoing Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio summed up global fears at a memorial service on Tuesday in Morocco, home of eight of the main suspects in last Thursday's train bombings that killed 201 people and wounded nearly 1,700.
"We were all in those trains blown apart by hatred," she said. "Those who think they can find a safe haven from terrorism delude themselves."
Spanish media said police were looking for five Moroccan men, part of a group of eight main suspects. Three Moroccan suspects have already been detained.
One of the three detained Moroccans has been identified as Jamal Zougam. Police said bomb survivors had identified him from photos as having been on board one of the trains but they were treating witness reports cautiously.
There were reports Zougam had connections with some of those arrested for last May's bombings in Casablanca that killed 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers. In Rabat, Moroccan authorities said no direct links had been established.
In France, a letter sent on Tuesday by a shadowy Islamist group to several newspapers threatened "to plunge France into terror and remorse and spill blood outside its frontiers."
The government confirmed the letter mentioned possible attacks on France and French interests abroad.
The group called itself the Movsar Barayev Commando, an apparent reference to the militant who organized the October 2002 Chechen hostage-taking at a Moscow theater.
In Seoul, South Korea's acting president ordered security to be boosted, saying the country was a major potential terrorism target.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS