Washington, October 22: Washington calls on Baghdad not to postpone an upcoming parliamentary election, warning that any delay would affect a planned US troop pull-out from Iraq.
Michele Flournoy, US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, told members of the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that failure to resolve the issue in a couple of weeks would mean that the elections would have to be postponed until late January.
“In that instance, MNF-I (Multi-National Force-Iraq) would have to engage with the government of Iraq to do some contingency planning on how to secure the elections at a later date and that might well have implications,” she said.
US commanders have planned to keep 100,000 troops in Iraq through the elections. After the polls, a fast drawdown must start that will reduce the forces to half.
Director for Strategic Plans and Policy Vice Admiral James Winnefeld also noted that any delay in the Iraq pull-out would affect plans for a necessary troop surge in Afghanistan.
“We have adequate capacity right now to do what we believe, whatever decision the president makes on Afghanistan, within — well within the current drawdown plan for Iraq,” he said.
The comments came after Iraqi lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on an important election law.
The parliament’s failure was due to a stalemate over oil-rich Kirkuk. The dispute centered on the registration of voters in the province which is populated by Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen communities.
–Agencies