Spain’s New Government Orders Iraq Withdrawal

Spain’s new Socialist prime minister, moving swiftly to fulfill a
campaign pledge, today ordered the withdrawal of Spanish troops from a
U.S.-led coalition in Iraq as soon as possible. His predecessor
denounced the action as a victory for terrorists who bombed trains in
Madrid three days before last month’s elections.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose Socialist Party scored a
surprising win in the March 14 elections, announced the pullout order
in a televised speech hours after his new government was sworn in.

The new prime minister said he had directed his defense minister, Jose
Bono, "to do what is necessary for the Spanish troops in Iraq to come
home in the shortest time and in the greatest safety possible."

Zapatero had pledged to withdraw the 1,300 Spanish troops sent to Iraq
by the previous government unless the United Nations took political
and military control of the country by a June 30 U.S. deadline for
transferring sovereignty to Iraqis. U.S. officials say that although
they plan to turn over political power by that date to an Iraqi
interim government chosen by the United Nations, U.S. forces will stay
in the country indefinitely to maintain security.

"With the information we have, and which we have gathered over the
past few weeks, it is not likely that the United Nations will adopt a
resolution that will meet the conditions we have set for our presence
in Iraq," Zapatero said, referring to Spanish requirements for
political and military change in Iraq that would allow the Spanish
troops to remain.

But Zapatero said his government would support U.N. or European Union
efforts to help Iraq prepare for elections and the assumption of
sovereignty. He is sending his foreign minister, Miguel Angel
Moratinos, to Washington for meetings Wednesday with Secretary of
State Colin L. Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice
to offer nonmilitary cooperation in Iraq, such as training Iraqi police.

Former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar, a conservative who
closely allied himself with President Bush, said pulling Spain’s
troops out of Iraq would hand terrorists a victory.

"It would be a message of having managed to achieve their objectives,"
Aznar said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday." He added: "The only
message that terrorists need to get is that they’re going to be beaten."

Aznar said a Spanish pullout from Iraq would be bad for both Spain and
the U.S.-led coalition, but would mark "a very good day for those who
don’t want stability and democracy in Iraq."

Aznar was defeated in elections following the March 11 train bombings
in Madrid that killed 191 people. His government had initially blamed
Basque separatists, and public anger mounted as evidence accumulated
that the attacks were the work of terrorists linked to Osama bin
Laden’s al Qaeda network and were carried out in retaliation for
Spain’s role in Iraq.

In an interview today on ABC’s "This Week," Rice said a Spanish
pullout was expected. She said that even without Spain’s troops, there
still would be a "vibrant and robust coalition on the ground" in Iraq.

Rice also sought to rebut criticism from Democratic presidential
candidate John F. Kerry that President Bush has not done enough to
bring allies into the war effort in Iraq. She said such complaints
"demean the contributions and the losses of countries like Ukraine or
Japan or Poland or Italy, where their people have also died in this
sacrifice."

In his speech, Zapatero noted that he had vowed long ago to withdraw
Spanish troops from Iraq and that most Spaniards had opposed Aznar’s
decision to send them.

"More than anything, this decision reflects my desire to keep the
promise I made to the Spanish people more than a year ago," Zapatero
said. "Driven by the deepest democratic convictions, the government
does not want to, cannot and will not act against or behind the backs
of the will of the Spanish people."

Zapatero’s party won 164 of the 350 seats in the Spanish parliament,
the Congress of Deputies, falling 12 seats short of a majority. But he
picked up an additional 19 seats from an alliance with smaller parties
and won the legislature’s support to become prime minister on Friday.

The Associated Press and Reuters news agency contributed to this report.

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