Iraqi Foreign Minister Zebari: “Nobody is for Withdrawal”

In a Wall Street Journal editorial by Robert Pollock, the reporter describes a recent interview he conducted with Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari of Iraq. Pollack first met Zebari in May 2003, when Saddam Hussein had just been overthrown and a sense of great hope for Iraq was in the air.

Since their original meeting, Pollack writes:

“Mr. Zebari has established himself as the great survivor of postwar Iraqi politics, holding his post through four governments.” Pollock adds that Zebari believes “the biggest mistake” the United States made in Iraq “was not entrusting the Iraqis as partners, to empower them, to see them do their part, to have a national unity government,” and that “the biggest sin was to change the mission from liberation to occupation.”

When discussing the continuing necessity of coalition forces in Iraq, Zebari told Pollock that “the new government was perfectly within its rights to ask for the departure of foreign troops.” However, Pollack writes, “he found no takers.” When Pollock asked him about the war debate in the United States and if Iraqis are worried that U.S. troops will leave soon, Zebari said, “yes…nobody is for withdrawal, even a timetable, for the troops.”

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