US responds to UN pressure on Iraqi refugees

The US plans to allow 7,000 Iraqi refugees to settle in the United States over the next year, a huge expansion at a time of mounting international pressure to help those who have fled the war.

The United States has allowed only 463 Iraq refugees into the country since the war began, even though some 3.8 million have left.

The administration also plans to pledge €13.4m for a worldwide resettlement and relief programme. The United Nations has asked for €45.6m from nations around the world.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today met with UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, to outline the expanded US programme. The 7,000 would be resettled from nations outside Iraq where they have fled.

Most refugees have fled to Syria and Jordan, both of which have recently tried to restrict the influx.

The UN estimates that 40,000 to 50,000 people flee Iraq each month and have dwindling options of where to go. Other Iraqis relocate inside the country, with some leaving neighbourhoods that were once mixed among Sunnis and Shiites and resettling where their sect is more concentrated.

US diplomats have discussed the refugee situation directly with the Syrian government, the State Department official said. That is notable because of the administration’s reluctance to engage Syria in high-level discussions about security in Iraq.

Jordan’s chief government spokesman Nasser Judeh said 7,000 is still a small number compared to the 700,000 Iraqi refugees Jordan has had to accommodate.

“7,000 Iraqi refugees is just 1% of the number we have,” Mr Judeh said.

Syria has taken in an estimated 1 million Iraqis. It was the last Arab country to take in large numbers.

“It’s not fair that the burden is not being shared effectively. A very limited number of countries is paying a very heavy price,” Mr Guterres said on a recent tour of the Mideast.

Meanwhile, President Bush shrugged off congressional debate on a non-binding resolution opposing his Iraq policy today, but said US troops are counting on politicians to provide them with the funds they need to win.

Mr Bush spoke as the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives debated a measure opposing his decision to send some 21,500 additional troops to Iraq.

“They have every right to express their opposition and it is a non-binding resolution,” he said of the House members, who were continuing a marathon Iraq policy debate on Capitol Hill even as he spoke.

Democrats relentlessly assailed President Bush’s policy in Iraq as a catastrophic failure.

The President also said today that he is convinced that the Iranian government is supplying deadly weapons to fighters in Iraq, even if he cannot prove the orders came from the highest levels in Tehran.

In his first news conference of the year, Mr Bush said it was vital to protect US troops against the new threat. “I’m going to do something about it,” he insisted.

US officials have said that Iran assisted attacks on troops in Iraq, an assertion denied by Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.