A Soldiers Blog

RIYADH ( Reuters ) - Middle Eastern nations were meeting on Friday to debate post-Saddam Iraq as the United States pressed on with its own plans for the war-ravaged nation.
Among eight countries at the first postwar regional forum was Syria, now under U.S. pressure for allegedly sheltering aides of Saddam Hussein and developing chemical weapons. The Riyadh meeting was hosted by Saudi Arabia to discuss the implications of the crushing U.S. victory on the region.
Foreign ministers of Iraq's neighbors Turkey, Iran, Syria, Kuwait and Jordan as well as Egypt and Bahrain were to attend. Barring Syria and Iran, all are key U.S. allies that offered some form of support for Iraq's invasion. None of these nations had any love for Saddam, whose three decades in power were ended this month by the U.S.-led war on Iraq, but now they all want a say in filling the vacuum.
Almost all Middle Eastern nations want the U.S. and British occupation to end immediately. They also want Iraqis to elect their own government -- but with help from neighboring states. In remarks carried by the Iranian news agency on Friday, President Mohammad Khatami said the role of regional countries in setting up a new Iraqi government was "very important."
And speaking to reporters in Cairo on Thursday, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara said he expected the meeting to call for maintaining Iraq's "unity, integrity and independence." "No one can guess or predict how long it will take to stabilize Iraq," he said. "But...occupation is not the right response to stability in Iraq."

BAGHDAD ( Reuters ) - Thousands of people carrying Korans and waving banners demonstrated outside a Baghdad mosque on Friday demanding the United States leave Iraq.
In the first Friday prayers since U.S. tanks drove to the heart of the Iraqi capital last week, Imam Ahmed al-Kubaisi said in his sermon the United States invaded Iraq to defend Israel and denied that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
His followers poured out of the mosque after prayers chanting anti-U.S. slogans and waving banners that read "No to America. No to Secular State. Yes to Islamic State."

Ha'aretz : Three American Patriot missile batteries set up for Iraq war in Israel to be dismantled Sunday.

PARIS ( AP ) - Interpol announced Friday it is sending a special team to Iraq to help track down pillaged art treasures, joining a legion of groups worldwide offering assistance in the recovery efforts.
The international law enforcement organization called on everyone involved in the conservation and trade of antiquities "to categorically decline any offers of cultural property originating from Iraq."
The move comes as Washington said FBI agents had been dispatched to Iraq to find plundered treasures and as the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization held an urgent meeting in Paris on restoring Iraq's cultural heritage. Interpol said in a statement that it planned a special gathering May 5-6 to devise strategies for recovering the thousands of objects stolen from Baghdad's Iraq National Museum and other institutions nationwide.
The meeting is to bring together officials from UNESCO, the International Council of Museums and the World Customs Organization, among others. While the pillage at first appeared to be a spontaneous frenzy unleashed by the fall of Baghdad, experts now believe some looters were highly organized professionals aiming to feed clandestine networks.
The Interpol statement said a special team of senior officers would go to Kuwait and other countries in the region later this month seeking information from governments and police on what had been stolen. "The team will travel to Iraq as soon as this can be arranged with military officials," the statement said.
Interpol has already alerted police in its 181 member countries to make sure that everyone from border guards to art dealers and even the public is aware of the situation, the statement added.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi says he is running Baghdad but no one seems sure with what authority.
Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi, head of one of the biggest Iraqi exile political groups, has arrived in the capital after decades abroad but has so far made only the blandest statements through his adviser.
And the U.S. invaders, who patrol the city's streets, are saying virtually nothing.
For Iraqis, it is a baffling change from the harsh one-party rule of Saddam Hussein. Many now simply want somebody -- whoever it is -- to take charge.
"Whether we choose it or not, we need a government," said 35-year-old Wafiq Mohammed in a crowd of Iraqis struggling to understand what the future holds.
More than a week after Baghdad fell to U.S. troops, many Iraqis are struggling to understand why Americans, so effective in war, seem to be so ineffective at peace.
Many want a government of their own people and are still somewhat skeptical about the United States' motives for the war.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi says he is running Baghdad but no one seems sure with what authority.
Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi, head of one of the biggest Iraqi exile political groups, has arrived in the capital after decades abroad but has so far made only the blandest statements through his adviser.
And the U.S. invaders, who patrol the city's streets, are saying virtually nothing.
For Iraqis, it is a baffling change from the harsh one-party rule of Saddam Hussein. Many now simply want somebody -- whoever it is -- to take charge.
"Whether we choose it or not, we need a government," said 35-year-old Wafiq Mohammed in a crowd of Iraqis struggling to understand what the future holds.
More than a week after Baghdad fell to U.S. troops, many Iraqis are struggling to understand why Americans, so effective in war, seem to be so ineffective at peace.
Many want a government of their own people and are still somewhat skeptical about the United States' motives for the war.

The Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (SMEC) says it is in negotiations with the United Nations and several US companies about securing a consulting role for Iraq's rehabilitation.
SMEC has been repairing infrastructure in northern Iraq for the past three years and has bases throughout the Middle East.

Russia will not support a US proposal to lift UN sanctions on Iraq if UN inspectors do not confirm the country has no weapons of mass destruction, a Russian foreign ministry official said.
" Regime change in Baghdad is not a condition for lifting economic sanctions on Iraq ," the official told the Interfax news agency on condition of anonymity.
" There is a UN Security Council resolution for this, which clearly stipulates the disarmament of Iraq - something international inspectors must decide ," he said, adding that Russia supported the return of UN inspectors.

A U.S. Marine wounded by a suicide bomber in Baghdad last week said Wednesday Iraqi civilians had saved American lives by warning them moments before the man blew himself up.
Marine Cpl. David McCallen said the Iraqis, who were helping the Marines move sandbags, alerted them as a man with a bomb strapped to his chest ran toward them.

"While we hoped that popular revolt or coup would topple Saddam, neither the U.S. nor the countries of the region wished to see the breakup of the Iraqi state. We were concerned about the long-term balance of power at the head of the Gulf. Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream, engaging in "mission creep," and would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible. We had been unable to find Noriega in Panama, which we knew intimately. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting it in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Under those circumstances, furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-cold war world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the U.N.'s mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different--and perhaps barren--outcome."