Expect Pakistan Troops in Iraq soon to help Iraq reclaim their country?
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s High Commissioner in Britain Maleeha Lodhi has said Pakistan will take a decision of sending troops to Iraq only if it is in national interests.
In an interview with BBC television, she said: “Certain prerequisites would have to be met to consider sending troops to Iraq and of these prerequisites the most important is an appropriate mandate of the United Nations.”
Maleeha said Pakistan has yet to see international consensus emerge, and to seek a resolution which can be agreed upon by all members of the Security Council. “It would remain important to take the nation and parliament into confidence and also keep in view the sentiments of the Iraqi people as indeed the sentiments of the Muslim people generally,” she added.
She said Pakistan has excellent track record in international peacekeeping force, adding, “today Pakistan is the largest contributor to UN peacekeeping troops anywhere in the world”. Maleeha said the sentiments of the Iraqi people, the Muslims in general and people of Pakistan would be paramount while taking a decision.
Not quite. President Musharraf of Pakistan has now publicly and quite skilfully set out some very sensible conditions that have to be met before Pakistan considers sending troops to Iraq.
Pakistan has voted in favour of US-backed UN resolution on Iraq but will not send its troops unless certain preconditions are met, President General Pervez Musharraf said here on Friday. “We have voted in favour of the resolution but we have clarified absolutely unambiguously that this is not linked to Pakistan contributing forces for Iraq,” he said while addressing a press conference at the end of the 10th OIC Summit. Responding to a question, the president said that Pakistan had been saying all along that there were certain pre-conditions required before we contribute our troops for Iraq. The pre-conditions, the president said, are the people of Iraq must show desire for Muslim or Pakistani troops and other Muslim countries also show the desire and willingness to participate in sending troops to Iraq. “This would ultimately change the public opinion in Pakistan which is very much against at the moment in this regard,” he said. Until and unless this environment is changed, the president said, we cannot take the decision to send troops as merely the passage of the UN Security Council resolution has not brought about change in this environment. Responding to a question, President Musharraf said it has to encourage the participation of Muslim troops. It should be UN-mandated force so that it may not be considered as extension of the forces present there because these have been perceived as occupational forces and this perception needs to be changed. There is a need to satisfy Iraqi people that the forces coming there are for the welfare of the Iraqi people.
Considering the fact that no major Arab state has even entertained the idea of sending troops to Iraq (and others like Iran would not even be considered), that leaves only a restricted number of significant and like-minded Muslim states that could send troops, in order to fulfill the second condition that President Musharraf outlined. These states include Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Senegal, and Turkey, and they would have to send very notable contributions as well. I believe only if a clear majority of these named states announced they were going to send troops to Iraq would the second condition be met, but it seems that most of these states have made no commitment on sending troops, and the one that has (Turkey), may actually reverse it’s decision, because of opposition at home, and from the Iraqi people. **Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he may reverse a decision to send troops to Iraq if Iraqis continue to oppose the idea. **](BBC NEWS | Middle East | Turkey cools towards Iraq role)
