Australia yesterday refused to apologize to Spain and the Philippines for saying their withdrawal of troops from Iraq encouraged militants.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Spain and the Philippines needed "to face up to the truth" that they were being exploited by terrorists, who were using them as examples when threatening other countries with attack.
Spain summoned Australia's ambassador in Madrid on Monday to protest Downer's comments over the past two days, which it described as "unacceptable."
PHOTO: REUTERS
"There's no point in trying to scurry away from the truth ... I am sensitive about the fact that terrorists use the examples of Spain and the Philippines in order to put pressure on Australia," Downer told Australian radio. "If you accede to the demands of terrorists they will exploit the acceding to their demand ... we are not going to apologize. We'll let bygones be bygones."
Downer's comments came after a group claiming to be the European wing of al-Qaeda threatened Australia and Italy with attacks if they did not follow Spain and the Philippines by withdrawing their troops from war-torn Iraq.
Australia is still investigating the credibility of the threats made by the Islamic Tawhid Group in a statement posted on a Web site that said it would attack Italy and Australia with "columns of rigged cars."
The previously unheard of Islamic Tawhid Group last week also threatened Bulgaria and Poland if they did not leave Iraq.
Spain's Socialist party had vowed to pull troops out of Iraq and made good on its promise after unexpectedly winning a March 11 poll, three days after 191 people were killed in coordinated train bombings in Madrid blamed on Islamic militants.
The Philippines brought its troops home earlier this month to save the life of a Filipino taken hostage in Iraq.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard yesterday said he supported Downer's comments and denied his minister had sparked a row with Spain and the Philippines.
"There's no rift, there's a difference of opinion about Iraq," Howard told reporters in Sydney. "[The withdrawal of troops] sent the wrong signal and you don't buy immunity from terrorist attacks by giving in to them."
Howard last week defended his decision to join the US-led war on Iraq after a report criticized Australia's intelligence agencies and their assessments of pre-war information.
He has said Australia's 850 troops in and around Iraq will stay as long as necessary. A poll has shown two-thirds of Australians support his stand.
But the opposition center-left Labor party, polling neck-and-neck with the eight-year-old government, has pledged to bring troops home by late-December if it wins office in a cliffhanger election tipped for October.
Labor leader Mark Latham said Australia should be concentrating on cooperating with international allies in the war on terror rather than "squabbling."
He told reporters: "We've got to be cooperative rather than part of an international blame game."
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS