The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, April 20, 2004, Image 9

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HE BATTALION
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
JllPoreign minister: Spain’s longterm
ies with United States won’t suffer
By Ed McCullough
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MADRID, Spain — Spain’s withdraw-
1 of its troops from Iraq should not harm
s longterm relations with the United
tales, the new foreign minister said in
marks published Monday, adding that
s country will remain steadfast in the
ght against terrorism.
Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos also
id the government of Prime Minister Jose
Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will honor Spain’s
ledges at the recent Iraq Donor’s
onference and help in
aq’s reconstruction and
ansition to democracy.
“We’re not washing our
ands” of the situation,
oratinos said in an inter-
iew Monday in the El Pais
ewspaper.
On Sunday Zapatero
rdered the 1,300 troops to
turn home as soon as pos-
ible, fulfilling a campaign
ledge to a nation recover-
g from terrorist bombings
'elbAr-j iat al-Qaida militants said
yere reprisal for Spain’s .
upport of the war.
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“This decision should not affect bilateral
elations between Spain and the United
states,” Moratinos said. He said aside from
tie issue of Iraq, Spain’s agenda with the
Inited States would be “wider and more
(tractive” under Zapatero.
Zapatero issued the abrupt recall just
sours after his government was sworn in,
aying there was no sign the United States
vould meet his demand for United Nations
ontrol of the postwar occupation — his
iltimatum for keeping troops there.
Zapatero’s Socialist party won the March
14 general election amid allegations that
outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar,
by backing the war in Iraq, had provoked
commuter-train terrorist bombings that
killed 191 people three days before the vote.
Though Zapatero, a 43-year-old lawyer
and career politician, had promised to
remove Spanish troops, his immediate
action was a bombshell, and a setback for
the United States as Moratinos prepared to
travel to Washington to discuss the dispute
with Secretary of State Colin Powell. He
was scheduled to leave Tuesday.
The Bush administration has been
eager to maintain an inter
national veneer on the
increasingly besieged
coalition force in Iraq,
which is dominated by its
130,000 American troops.
In a five-minute address
at the Moncloa Palace,
Zapatero said he had
ordered Defense Minister
Jose Bono to “do what is
necessary for the Spanish
troops stationed in Iraq to
return home in the shortest
time possible.”
Fie cited his campaign
pledge to bring the 1,300
troops in Iraq home by
June 30, when their mandate expires, if the
United Nations failed to take political and
military control.
“With the information we have, and
which we have gathered over the past few
weeks, it is not foreseeable that the United
Nations will adopt a resolution” that satis
fies Spain’s terms by its deadline,
Zapatero said.
The latest poll showed 72 percent of
Spaniards want the troops withdrawn.
In Washington, U.S. officials said
Zapatero’s announcement was not a surprise.
NEWS IN BRIEF
This decision
should not affect
bilateral relations
between Spain and
the United States.
— Miguel Moratinos
Foreign Minister
Two employees of U.S.-funded Iraqi
television shot dead by U.S. troops
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — U.S. troops shot to death two employ
ees of U.S.-funded television station Al-lraqiya on Monday and
vounded a third in the central city of Samara, the station said.
Correspondent Asaad Kadhim and driver Hussein Saleh were
1. Cameraman Bassem Kamel was wounded “after American
orces opened fire on them while they were performing their
fluty,” the station announced.
The station, which is funded by the Pentagon, interrupted its
firoadcasts to announce the deaths and showed photos of Kadhim.
I then began airing only Quranic texts as a symbol of mourning.
The U.S. military had no immediate comment.
Thamir Ibrahim, an Al-lraqiya editor, told The Associated Press
he had no details on how the shooting occurred. But “it was on
he road leading to the city of Samara. Before they reached it,
Ihey were fired upon.”
] They were taken to a Samara hospital, he said. “We wanted to
bo (to them) now, but the road is closed, so we will go tomorrow.”
|0n March 18, U.S. troops shot dead correspondent Ali al-
piatib and cameraman Ali Abdel-Aziz of the Dubai-based Al-
Irabiya news station.
Al-Khatib and Abdel-Aziz were shot near a U.S. military check
point while covering the aftermath of a rocket attack on the Burj
|l-Hayat hotel in Baghdad.
I With the deaths of the two men on Monday, at least 26 Iraqi and
breign journalists and media workers have been killed during the
lag war and its aftermath, according to the Committee to Protect
Journalists Web site.
]Al-lraqiya began broadcasting on May 13, set up under a
jlefense Department contract. The Iraq Media Network, which
tins Al-lraqiya and two Baghdad radio station, was conceived
luring the State Department’s war preparations.
| The TV station gets exclusive interviews with coalition leaders and
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“We knew from the recent Spanish elec
tion that it was the new prime minister’s
intention to withdraw Spanish troops from
the coalition in Iraq,” said a White House
spokesman, Ken Lisaius. “We will work
with our coalition partners in Iraq and the
Spanish government and expect they will
implement their decision in a coordinated,
responsible and orderly manner.”
Zapatero said Defense Minister Jose
Bono would give details in coming days
of the process of bringing the soldiers
home, and that he himself had convened
an urgent meeting of Parliament to discuss
his decision.
For now, Spain will continue with sched
uled troop replacements, including 190
troops to head to Iraq later Monday, the
Defense Ministry said. About 240 new
troops went to Iraq last week, in addition to
165 earlier this month, a ministry
spokesman said. Corresponding numbers of
troops in Iraq returned home.
Most Spanish political parties including
the Socialists endorsed the decision. The
now-opposition Popular Party immediately
denounced it.
Mariano Rajoy, who ran against
Zapatero in the election after Aznar decid
ed not to seek another term, said the deci
sion made Spain “much more vulnerable
and weak in the face of terrorism in the
face of terrorism.”
Zapatero has “thrown in the towel”
rather than try to exhaust all possibilities of
getting a new U.N. resolution to meet his
demands, Rajoy said.
In his announcement, Zapatero indicated
that nothing argued for him to reverse the
course of his campaign pledge.
“More than anything, this decision
reflects my desire to keep the promise I
made to the Spanish people more than a year
ago,” he said.
streams live broadcasts of speeches by L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S.
official in Iraq. But most Iraqis continue to get their news from Arab
satellite stations based abroad, like Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya.
Among the journalists who have been killed during the Iraq
conflict is Reuters cameraman, Mazen Dana, shot by U.S. troops
in August. The military ruled that the soldiers acted in accordance
with ruled of engagement because they believed his camera was
a rocket launcher, a conclusion Reuters disputed.
Another Reuters cameraman, Taras Protsyuk, and Spanish
Telecinco cameraman Jose Couso were killed on April 8,
2003, when a U.S. tank fired at the Palestine Hotel where they
were staying.
U.S. Gen. Richard Myers to Syria: Do
more to help quell violence in Iraq
WASHINGTON (AP) — After new violence that flared near the
Iraqi border with Syria left five Marines dead, the U.S. military’s
top general urged Damascus to do more to cut the flow of foreign
fighters entering Iraq.
The warning Sunday from Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, came as the U.S. effort in Iraq suffered a set
back when the new Spanish prime minister, fulfilling a campaign
pledge, said he would withdraw the 1,300-member Spanish mili
tary contingent as soon as possible.
The White House said it expected the move and hoped for
Spain’s continued help in the fight against terrorism, but lawmak
ers voiced concern.
“The military situation can accept this, but it will put pressure on
the other coalition nations that have joined in this, I’m sure,” said
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed
Services Committee. “It’s troublesome.”
The battle Saturday on the Syrian-lraqi border, in an area that
had seen little fighting previously, left at least 25 Iraqis dead.
Myers said the stability not only of Syria and Iraq, but also of the
entire region is at stake.
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