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Iraqi forces may be ready to take over security by late 2007

Iraqi oil minister says Iraqi forces may be ready to take over security by late 2007
By Associated Press
Thursday, October 19, 2006 - Updated: 08:06 AM EST

CANBERRA, Australia - Iraqi security forces could be ready to take over the battle against insurgents from U.S.-led coalition troops by the end of next year, Iraq’s oil minister said Thursday.
     But Hussain al-Shahristani stressed that Iraq still needed international help to fight a terrorist threat that could spread to the rest of the world.
     “Iraq unfortunately has become a battlefield of international terrorists,” al-Shahristani said during a visit to Australia’s capital, Canberra. “We expect the international community to stay with the Iraqi people in this war against international terrorism because if these people are allowed to succeed, God forbid, in Iraq, then they’ll be a threat to the whole world.”
     Al-Shahristani said Iraq would “have sufficient trained and equipped Iraqi forces to take over responsibility” for security “by the end of 2007, or perhaps 2008.”
     “Over half of the country now is totally under control of the Iraqi forces,” he said.
     But Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said it was still uncertain when Iraq’s military would be ready.
     “The sooner they’re able to do it the better, of course. We’re not putting a timeframe on it,” Downer said, adding that Al-Shahristani was “a little more optimistic than some of us sometimes have been in recent times.”
     Al-Shahristani, the first member of his government to visit Australia, said he was here to thank the country’s for its support of Iraq. Australia sent 2,000 troops to assist U.S. and British forces in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. About 1,300 Australian soldiers remain in and around the country.
     Australia’s opposition Labor Party has pledged to withdraw most of the Australian troops from Iraq if it wins elections next year. Prime Minister John Howard said withdrawing international soldiers before Iraqi security forces are ready would be a mistake.
     “It’s been difficult, but the longer it has gone on, the more strongly have I been of the belief that for us to leave in a situation where the terrorists win and democracy has no hope would be a disaster,” Howard told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
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