Powell: If asked, U.S. will leave Iraq

By Glenn Kessler
The Washington Post

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most e-mailed articles

Related stories 2 GIs killed in combat; 2 others die while in Iraq Notebook: Cleric calls for revenge over shrine

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Colin Powell emphatically said yesterday that if the incoming Iraqi interim government ordered the departure of foreign troops after June 30, they would pack up without protest, but emphasized he doubted such a request would be made.

Powell said the United States believes a U.N. resolution passed last year and Iraqi administrative law provide necessary authority for coalition forces — currently numbering about 170,000 — to remain even beyond the scheduled June 30 handover of limited sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government.

"We're there to support the Iraqi people and protect them and the new government," Powell said at a news conference with other foreign ministers from the Group of Eight nations. "I have no doubt the new government will welcome our presence and am losing no sleep over whether they will ask us to stay."

But were the new government to say it could handle security, "then we would leave," Powell said.

Powell said he was "not ducking the hypothetical, which I usually do," to avoid confusion on the extent of the new government's authority.

His statement, which was echoed by L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, and the foreign ministers of Britain, Italy and Japan, came one day after conflicting testimony by administration officials on the issue.

Testifying before the House International Relations Committee on Thursday, Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman appeared to say the interim government could order the departure of foreign troops, only to be contradicted by Lt. Gen. Walter Sharp, Joint Chief of Staffs director for strategic plans and policy, who asserted that only an elected government could do so. Iraqi elections are scheduled for January.

The new government's ability to assert its authority after the occupation authority dissolves has been a central question in the international consultations over the shape of the incoming government, with the United States under pressure to transfer as much political power as possible to the Iraqi people.

"The Iraqi government has to be in a position to govern, and that's why I mean that it has to be a break with the past," French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said. In Baghdad, Bremer told a delegation from Iraq's Diyala province that American forces would not stay where they were unwelcome.
 
"If the provisional government asks us to leave, we will leave," Bremer said, referring to an Iraqi administration due to take power June 30. "I don't think that will happen, but obviously we don't stay in countries where we're not welcome."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters the Iraqi people still want help from the United States and coalition forces to provide security.

"Iraqi security forces are not fully equipped and trained to provide for their own security and defend their country against terrorists," McClellan said. "And so, after the transfer of sovereignty on June 30, we expect to continue to partner with the Iraqi forces to improve the security situation."

French, Russian and Italian officials pressed yesterday for the new Iraqi government to be given the authority to halt military actions by U.S. forces.

Powell rejected that, saying the forces will remain under the command of an American who "has to be free to take whatever decisions he believes are appropriate to accomplish his mission."

But Foreign Minister Franco Frattini of Italy, a strong supporter of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, disagreed. "If we imagine a unilateral decision by coalition forces after June 30, without listening to the Iraqi people or without giving them the power to say no, there won't be a transfer of power," Frattini told reporters.

"And, in fact, what we want is that there is such power for the Iraqi people."

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.