Iraq won’t be part of Iranian, Turkish or Arab axis, PM says:

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq‘s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has confirmed on Tuesday that any U.S. forces would not stay in Iraq after year 2011, reiterating that “Iraq shall not be part of any Iranian, Turkish or Arab axis. “The last American soldier shall leave Iraq, according to the Agreement concluded between the U.S. and Iraq, and this agreement is not liable for extension or change, because it is an official agreement, signed between both sides, Maliki said In an interview with the  Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. “We shall not allow our country to be bias for Iran, despite the existance of some parties inside our government, supporting an alliance with Iran,” Maliki said. The Iraqi Prime Minister stressed that “Iraq‘s biasness towards any axis or orbit is impossible, because we reject such biasness, be it from Iran, Turkey or the Arabs,” pointing out that “there is exists a type of ‘paranoya’ by the United States towards any alliance between Tehran and Baghdad, stemming from a fear in Iran from the American influence,” saying that “an Iranian official had visited me in the past, saying: “I think that are standing by the door of your office now!” The newspaper, on its part, had pointed out that the U.S. Vice-President, Jo Biden, had said in an interview in Washington that “Iran had failed to have any influence on Maliki during the last elections, thing that made some members of the Iraqi government to move to Iran for a short time, during Iraq‘s former regime of Saddam Hussein.” Maliki pointed out that his government had neutralized the militias, saying: “the militias are now part of the government and have joined the political process,” adding that the Shiite Sadrists “are heading now towards a satisfactory trend, through their contribution in the government, their reouncement of violation and military activity, thing that we welcome.” “The days that the ethnic militias had been touring Iraq‘s streets in the past and acting above the law, had ended, as “there isn’t a single militia or gang that can face the Iraqi forces, control a street or a house, because such thing had ended and we are satisfied with that,” Maliki said. On the other hand, Maliki sais that he had expanded the number of his cabinet in the new government, “simply to satisfy the conflicting parties and bring them to join the ruling coalition.” As regards to the Kurdish position towards the general issues in the country, Maliki said that he supported a number of Kurdish demands, including the carrying out of a consensus in the northern areas of Iraq, despite his conviction that such a step “would not be effective, without attaching constitutional measures with them.” FH (A) / SKH 2