Italy’s Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, on Tuesday announced that he would begin withdrawing his country’s troops from Iraq in September under pressure from public opinion.
”I’ve spoken to [Tony] Blair about this,” he told a TV interviewer. ”We’ve got to construct a precise exit strategy. Public opinion expects it, and we shall be talking about it soon.”
British defence sources on Tuesday night repeated the British government’s stated policy that its troops will stay in Iraq ”as long as is necessary and as long as the Iraqis want us”.
Berlusconi’s comments about a precise exit strategy were ”an aspiration” or ”political guesswork”, they added.
Berlusconi, who is among President Bush’s closest allies, has been under huge domestic pressure over Italy’s staunch support for US policy in Iraq. Early next month, he faces a test of electoral strength and in recent weeks he has felt the full force of Italians’ misgivings.
On March 4, a senior intelligence officer, Nicola Calipari, was killed by US troops in Baghdad after rescuing an Italian hostage. His death united right and left in appalled condemnation, with thousands of Italians turning out to pay their respects to the dead agent during a lying in state.
Berlusconi dropped his bombshell on Tuesday night hours after Italy’s lower house of Parliament, in which the prime minister’s supporters have an outright majority, approved funding for its contingent in Iraq until the end of June.
Italian officials had already indicated troops would be withdrawn as soon as it was clear that Iraq could handle its own security. But Berlusconi went much further than before in defining the outlines of a timetable. He said: ”A progressive reduction of the presence of our soldiers will start from September.”
He added that the phase-out would take place ”in agreement with our allies”. He was careful not to let himself be pinned down to a finishing date, saying that would ”depend on the ability of the Iraqi government in equipping itself with adequate security and public order forces”.
With 3 000 troops, Italy is one of the biggest contributors to the US-led coalition. Its forces did not take part in the invasion of Iraq, but were sent in afterwards as part of what Berlusconi and his ministers have always insisted was a peace mission.
Tuesday saw Italy’s death toll reach 21 when it was announced that a soldier had accidentally shot and killed himself during target practice.
In London, the British government announced on Tuesday it was proposing an international conference on Iraq later this year to encourage the United Nations and other major organisations to kickstart the stalled reconstruction programme.
A similar idea for a postwar conference was put forward by France a year ago but was blocked by the US, because it was proposed by a country that had spearheaded international opposition to the war. But the British idea is gaining widespread support, including that of the US and France.
The conference would bring together the countries contributing troops, those offering economic help, and the UN, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other international bodies. British officials said that the Iraq conference is likely to be held abroad, probably in Brussels.
The proposal comes as the Iraqi assembly, elected on January 30, meets on Wednesday for the first time.
But the Shias and Kurds who make up the bulk of the 275-member Parliament have so far failed to reach agreement on the formation of a coalition government.
The assembly will meet behind the concrete blast-barriers and barbed wire that separates Baghdad’s Green Zone, home to the US and British embassies and the interim Iraqi government, from the rest of the Iraqi capital. – Guardian Unlimited Â