Iraq 'able to handle internal security in two years'

Iraqi forces should be able to control the country’s internal security within two years, but will still need foreign help to patrol its borders, the Iraqi national security adviser said today.

Speaking in Tokyo, Japan, Mowaffak Al Rubaie said Iraqi forces were moving on the path of being able to secure the country, despite a recent surge in violence.

“I believe in 18 months or a maximum of two years, Iraq security forces will be able and competent to control the security situation inside Iraq,” he said.

“Now, defending the borders from threats coming from neighbours, or coming from outside, is a different matter,” Al Rubaie added.

Al Rubaie met earlier with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso, and was to later meet with defence chief Fukushiro Nukaga. Al Rubaie is in Tokyo to discuss security in Iraq and the future of Iraq-Japan relations.

Despite his stated faith in Iraqi security forces, Al Rubaie backed away from speculating on a timeline for the withdrawal of US-led coalition forces, saying the recent violence had affected earlier estimates of a coalition withdrawal.

“I don’t think it is wise to put a timeline for a total withdrawal of the foreign troops from Iraq,” he said. “I think this will play into the hands of the terrorists and the insurgents.”

An upsurge in violence linked to the Sunni insurgency and the Shiite-Sunni sectarian conflict killed about 3,500 people in July, the highest monthly death toll since the US led invasion in March 2003.

Some fear Iraq is on the road to civil war, but Al Rubaie denied that, saying that violent attacks have been declining in recent weeks after peaking last month. He said the al-Qaida terrorist network’s forces in Iraq had been “severely wounded”.

“We’re on the right track for being self-reliant and self-sufficient,” he said.

More than 2,600 members of the US military have also died in Iraq since the invasion.

President George Bush yesterday acknowledged that the Iraq war is “straining the psyche of our country”, but warned that leaving now would be a disaster.