M A I N   N E W S

Decision on troops to Iraq today
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 13
Even as opposition to commit Indian troops to war-ravaged Iraq continues, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) will meet here tomorrow to take a final view on the issue.

The CCS meeting, to be presided by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is likely to make a comprehensive assessment of the ground realities in Iraq where US soldiers are facing hostile conditions.

The meeting would take into account the clarifications that New Delhi has received from Washington on the issue. India had sought some clarifications on the US request for sending Indian troops to the stabilisation force in Iraq.

India, which had conveyed to the USA that an interim Iraqi administration should be in place in Baghdad to extend legitimacy to any stabilisation force in Iraq, has maintained that it would take a decision keeping in view its “best national interest” and the “best interest” of the Iraqi people.

Ahead of the meeting, the Samata Party today asked the government not to send Indian forces to Iraq unless under UN supervision.

“The Iraqi people are today under the administrative control of the USA without any legitimate mouthpiece of their own. Unless India can bring back law and order and self- respect to the Iraqi people under internationally accepted criteria we should not be in a hurry to send troops to that country,” the party, which is holding its National Executive, said in a draft resolution.

“The CCS meeting will be held tomorrow. I am not ready to say anything on this issue,” Samata Party President and Defence Minister George Fernandes told mediapersons here when asked about reports that New Delhi may station its soldiers in Iraq.