Insurgency in Iraq 'will not end': Powell
AFP: 12/28/2004
WASHINGTON, Dec 28 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell said
Tuesday that the insurgency in Iraq "will not end," as insurgents are
determined to derail the country's democratic transition.
Powell reiterated that Iraq's January 30 elections will take place as
scheduled and that the US and Iraqi forces are working to have security
in place for the polls.
But, he told CBS television, "the insurgency will not end."
"These insurgents are determined to have no representative government.
They want to go back to a tyranny," Powell said.
"And so the insurgency will continue and the insurgency will have to be
defeated by coalition forces, but increasingly the insurgency will be
defeated and brought under control, if not completely defeated, by Iraqi
forces that we are building up as rapidly as we can," he added.
Powell, who spoke to several US television networks early Tuesday, said
he hoped the Iraqi Islamic party, the country's main Sunni movement,
would reconsider its decision to boycott the elections.
"The party that pulled out, we hope that they will review their actions
and take another look at security closer to the event, and perhaps
rejoin the process," he told Fox News.
The elections will "go off well" in most of the country, but the
security situation in the Sunni-dominated areas needs to improve to
encourage voters to turn out, Powell said.
"In the Sunni area, which is the most populated part of the country, we
have an insurgency that is raging, and we will be devoting all of our
coalition efforts and the efforts of Iraqi military and police forces to
bring this under control so that people will feel secure and safe in
coming out to vote," he told Fox.
Powell also said an audiotape attributed to Osama bin Laden shows that
the Al-Qaeda chief is linked to Iraq's most wanted man, Jordanian
militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
He added that the CIA has yet to confirm the authenticity of the tape,
which was broadcast Monday by Al-Jazeera television.
In the audiotape, the speaker recognizes Zarqawi as Al-Qaeda's leader in
Iraq. The speaker also calls for a boycott of Iraq's January 30 elections.
"If it is Osama bin Laden -- and the CIA has not made a final judgment
on that -- it certainly rhetorically puts them together," Powell told CNN.
"We now have two murderers, two terrorists, two thugs, talking to each
other. I don't know what this rhetorical support will translate into,
but we're moving right ahead toward elections on the 30th of January,"
Powell told Fox News.
12/28/2004 14:49 GMT - AFP
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