[Marxism] More Fallujah "roll over" fallout: Netherlands still quitting in March

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Al-Jazeera


 <http://www.aljazeerah.info/> http://www.aljazeerah.info/



Netherlands, Hungary Reject Iraq Troop Extension

Maria Lokshin

Associated Press, Arab News

THE HAGUE/BUDAPEST, 16 November 2004 ? Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot
said
yesterday his government will stick to its withdrawal schedule from
Iraq,
despite an appeal by the United States to keep its troops there as long
as
needed. 

³We leave Iraq by the middle of March. That is the decision. That
decision
still stands,² Bot told foreign correspondents.

In Budapest, the Hungarian Parliament yesterday rejected a government
proposal to extend the stay of 300 non-combat troops in Iraq by three
months
until March 31. 

On Friday, the US State Department urged the Netherlands to stay on.

³We certainly would encourage them to consider how to continue their
contribution to the effort in Iraq, through NATO or with their direct
deployment,² department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

He added that all countries with troops in Iraq should link their
withdrawal
plans to Iraqi needs rather than to dates on the calendar.

The scheduled March 15 withdrawal would keep the troops in Iraq beyond
elections planned in January for an Iraqi government.

Bot said delaying the elections would mean ³havoc² for the creation of
an
independent leadership.

He also stressed the importance of electing a new leader of the
Palestinian
Authority after last week¹s death of Yasser Arafat. Bot attended
Arafat¹s
funeral service in Egypt, representing the EU and the Netherlands, which
currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

³We are now looking to a new leadership because we feel that if you want
to
play a role ? and we certainly do want to play a role ? in the solution
of
the Middle East conflict we first of all have to know with whom we are
dealing on the Palestinian side,² Bot said.

Elections are to be held by Jan. 9.

Bot said the Middle East will be a central topic at a US-EU summit
scheduled
for later this week
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