Monday, December 19, 2005
News RhetIraq: Training Iraqi Troops & Palestinian-Israeli Negotiations
What: Training of Iraqi Troops & Palestinian-Israeli Negotiations
Source: United Press International
Quotes: Excerpts from Dec. 15 article titled "Egypt's offer to train Iraq troops ignored"
... the Bush administration, which in the past has asked for help from Arab and European countries, has not responded to offers from Egypt to help train Iraqi troops, said Nabil Fahmy, Egypt's ambassador to Washington.
Egypt is one country that has repeatedly offered its services to Iraq and to the United States but, he says, the offers on military training are consistently ignored.
... the Bush administration has sought Arab and international participation to help rebuild Iraq's military and its security forces.
Few countries have stepped up to the plate. Among the few that have are Germany, Jordan and Egypt. Germany and Jordan were taken up on their offers and thousands of Iraqi troops traveled to those two countries to undergo military training. But inexplicably, repeated offers from Egypt went unanswered.
"We have the capacity to train about 3,000 Iraqi troops in Egypt every three months," said the Egyptian ambassador, speaking to a group of journalists over breakfast in his Washington residence Thursday morning.
While thousands of Iraqis were sent to train in Germany and Jordan, only "146 or 147 Iraqi troops have trained in Egypt so far," laments the ambassador.
"I spoke to the Pentagon, I spoke to the people at the State Department and I spoke to the National Security Council," he said. The ambassador says he did not get a clear-cut answer from practically anyone as to why Egypt's repeated offers over a period of almost two years were ignored.
"It's at this point where I stopped begging," said Fahmy.
In response to a question about the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations and the prospects for the future, the ambassador said he believed "the Bush administration is currently overwhelmed by developments in Iraq, but we would need them to continue with us as we move forward on the Palestinian-Israeli negotiation."
Source: United Press International
Quotes: Excerpts from Dec. 15 article titled "Egypt's offer to train Iraq troops ignored"
... the Bush administration, which in the past has asked for help from Arab and European countries, has not responded to offers from Egypt to help train Iraqi troops, said Nabil Fahmy, Egypt's ambassador to Washington.
Egypt is one country that has repeatedly offered its services to Iraq and to the United States but, he says, the offers on military training are consistently ignored.
... the Bush administration has sought Arab and international participation to help rebuild Iraq's military and its security forces.
Few countries have stepped up to the plate. Among the few that have are Germany, Jordan and Egypt. Germany and Jordan were taken up on their offers and thousands of Iraqi troops traveled to those two countries to undergo military training. But inexplicably, repeated offers from Egypt went unanswered.
"We have the capacity to train about 3,000 Iraqi troops in Egypt every three months," said the Egyptian ambassador, speaking to a group of journalists over breakfast in his Washington residence Thursday morning.
While thousands of Iraqis were sent to train in Germany and Jordan, only "146 or 147 Iraqi troops have trained in Egypt so far," laments the ambassador.
"I spoke to the Pentagon, I spoke to the people at the State Department and I spoke to the National Security Council," he said. The ambassador says he did not get a clear-cut answer from practically anyone as to why Egypt's repeated offers over a period of almost two years were ignored.
"It's at this point where I stopped begging," said Fahmy.
In response to a question about the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations and the prospects for the future, the ambassador said he believed "the Bush administration is currently overwhelmed by developments in Iraq, but we would need them to continue with us as we move forward on the Palestinian-Israeli negotiation."
