All have tried to play a role in directing Iraqi politics six months after an election that produced no clear winner and as yet no new government, and are now positioning themselves for when US forces fully withdraw in 2011, Zebari said on Tuesday. “Of course many of them are under the illusion that there will be a security vacuum the moment the US forces leave Iraq and they can step in to fill the vacuum,” he told Reuters as US forces formally ended combat operations in Iraq.
“We have warned all of them there wouldn't be any vacuum, and if there would be a vacuum, the only people who will fill that vacuum are the Iraqis themselves.”
“I think it is a turning point in the American military engagement in Iraq,” Zebari said of the Aug. 31 end to US combat operations. “For the current administration of Obama, it is an important day because he has fulfilled his pledge to the American public that he will conduct a responsible withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and he has done that.”
Zebari said attempts by other countries to pursue their own agendas in Iraq made it all the more important that Iraqi leaders rise up to their responsibilities and “take the destiny of the country in their hands” by forming a government. “It has not reached a crisis point yet but it is very close,” he said.
