Iraq’s interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, thanked the United States on Thursday for liberating his country and said Iraq is on the path to success.
”We are succeeding in Iraq,” he told a joint session of Congress.
The US has made ”enormous sacrifices” in Iraq, Allawi said, vowing that those ”sacrifices are not in vein”. Militants and terrorists seeking to undermine the establishment of democracy in Iraq will fail, he said to a round of applause.
Allawi’s address before Congress was taking place before he was scheduled to meet with President George Bush at the White House amid growing violence in Iraq.
Allawi’s visit to Washington comes six weeks ahead of the November 2 presidential election.
Allawi said the removal of Saddam Hussein has made the US and the rest of the world safer, a line that brought his audience to their feet and a 30-second applause. — Sapa-DPA