The United States and its allies condemned Monday’s killing of the Iraqi governing council head as an act of terror aimed at sowing more instability but vowed it would not derail next month’s power transfer.
Ezzedine Salim, the highest-ranking Iraqi to be killed during the US-led occupation, was blown up in a suspected suicide car bomb attack along with nine other people outside the huge high-security coalition headquarters in Baghdad.
The country’s top US administrator Paul Bremer branded the attack, the latest in a series of deadly strikes against the occupation forces, a “vile act” and vowed to crush those responsible.
“The terrorists who are seeking to destroy Iraq have struck a cruel blow with this vile act today. But they will be defeated,” he said in a statement.
“The Iraqi people will ensure that his vision of a democratic, free and prosperous Iraq will become a reality,” said Bremer, who was meeting with members of the US-installed Governing Council to discuss the bombing.
Britain, the top US ally in Iraq, said the slaying of Salim was aimed at disrupting the planned handover of power from the occupation forces to an as yet undefined Iraqi administration.
But Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, in Brussels for a meeting of EU foreign ministers, said the transfer would go ahead as planned on June 30, as would plans for elections in Iraq by January.
“That will happen, and these murders will not undermine the determination of the Iraqis nor of the coalition to see that a democratic Iraq is established as soon as possible.”
Straw described those behind the bomb blast as “enemies of the Iraqi people themselves”.
Prime Minister Tony Blair also condemned the killing and vowed to continue to “help Iraqis,” his spokesperson said.
“Mr Salim had been working with his colleagues for the past year to give Iraq a future of freedom, democracy and security, all of which are goals rejected by the terrorists.”
Another key US ally, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, said he was horrified by the attack and that it showed why Australian troops should remain in Iraq.
“This is not the killing of an American or an Englishman, it’s the killing of one of their own and what these people are about is preventing Iraq having a democratic future.
“Are we going to give in to that? Are we going to walk away? Are we going to say that if you murder, and kill and bomb people enough we’re going to turn our backs and walk away,” said Howard, who is fighting opposition demands that the 850 troops in and around Iraq be brought home.
French President Jacques Chirac, one of the strongest opponents of the US-led war on Iraq, said he was dismayed by the violence in Iraq and reiterated a call for a quick transition to full Iraqi self-rule.
He said he was “as convinced as ever that there is no military solution, that a political solution is needed” to stop the violence. “I hope such a solution will be found through the transfer of sovereignty and power to a truly Iraqi government, as quickly as possible.”
And Iraq’s interim foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari, in Jordan for the World Economic Forum, said Salim’s death would only strengthen the resolve to regain sovereignty.
“This will not derail the process. June 30 still stands.”
WEF host Jordan also condemned the killing.
“We condemn the political assassinations… [they] should not be used at all as a tool to express positions,” government spokesperson Asma Khodr said.
Portugal, which has about 130 military personnel under British command in southern Iraq, described it as a “terrorist act”.
“This act intends to strike at the political process which culminates on June 30 with the transfer of power to the Iraqi government,” said Portuguese Foreign Minister Teresa Gouveia, according to the Lusa news agency. – Sapa-AFP
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