Wrapping up a two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that despite attacks that have taken the lives of international coalition forces, he has received assurances from allied nations that they would not withdraw troops from Iraq.
“We’ve got very good allied support in Iraq,” Rumsfeld said Tuesday.
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Rumsfeld noted that 18 nations contributing troops to the stabilization effort are NATO members or those countries set to join the alliance next year, and he said he was encouraged by promises from defense ministers gathered here that their forces would not be ordered home in the face of violence in Iraq.
“Most, if not all, have pledged to stay on to work to sustain their contributions, and to not be dissuaded by the fact that there have been some high-profile casualties that have been taken by some of the coalition countries,” Rumsfeld said.
Weekend attacks in Iraq resulted in the deaths of seven Spanish intelligence officers, as well as two Japanese and two South Koreans. A truck bomb two weeks ago took the lives of 19 Italians.
During their talks, NATO defense ministers discussed ways to increase alliance support for a Polish-led multinational division responsible for security in south-central Iraq.
Alliance officials said that defense ministers even broached the idea of NATO eventually assuming command of that division, but the meeting adjourned without proposals being officially offered.
In his comments, Rumsfeld gave no timetable for how long coalition forces would remain in Iraq.
The Bush administration has pledged to accelerate the process of handing over sovereignty to Iraqis, and the Pentagon is working to build a larger police, civil defense force and army there to hasten a process that officials describe as “putting an Iraqi face” on security efforts.