Thu, Mar 18, 2004 page7

• Bush's plea is in vain: Zapatero

  FIRM STANCE Labeling the US administration of Iraq a 'fiasco,' Spain's new prime minister affirmed he would pull Spanish forces out of the troubled country

  • REUTERS
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  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.

  

  A ceremony is held at the Torrejon military airbase in Madrid before the coffins of 11 Romanian victims of the March 11 train-bomb attacks on Tuesday.

  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.
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