Spain to Withdraw Troops From Iraq

MADRID, Spain

The prime minister ordered Spanish troops pulled out of Iraq as soon as possible Sunday, fulfilling a campaign pledge to a nation still recovering from terrorist bombings that al-Qaida militants said were reprisal for Spain’s support of the war.

The new Socialist prime minister issued the abrupt recall just hours after his government was sworn in, saying there was no sign the United States would meet his demands for staying in Iraq - United Nations control of the postwar occupation.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s party won the March 14 general election amid allegations that outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar had provoked commuter-train terrorist bombing, which killed 191 people three days earlier, by backing the war in Iraq.

Zapatero pledged to remove Spanish troops in his winning campaign. But his announcement - a setback for the United States - was a bombshell, coming just hours after his government was sworn in, and as his foreign minister planned to travel to Washington to discuss the dispute.

In a five-minute address at the Moncloa Palace, Zapatero said he had ordered Defense Minister Jose Bono to "do what is necessary for the Spanish troops stationed in Iraq to return home in the shortest time possible."

Zapatero cited his campaign pledge to bring the 1,300 troops in Iraq home by June 30, when their mandate expires, if the United Nations failed to take political and military control of the situation.

"With the information we have, and which we have gathered over the past few weeks, it is not foreseeable that the United Nations will adopt a resolution" that satisfies Spain’s terms, Zapatero said.

Also, the latest poll showed 72 percent of Spaniards wanted the troops withdrawn.

Public remarks by key officials in the dispute and contacts that Bono held over the past month show no signs that the political and military situation will change sufficiently to satisfy Spain by the June 30 deadline, Zapatero said.

The Bush administration said the move was not a surprise.

"We knew from the recent Spanish election that it was the new prime minister’s intention to withdraw Spanish troops from the coalition in Iraq," said White House spokesman Ken Lisaius. "We will work with our coalition partners in Iraq and the Spanish government and expect they will implement their decision in a coordinated, responsible and orderly manner."

Bono is reported to have met secretly in Washington with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on April 5.

Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos confirmed news reports that he will travel Tuesday to Washington to discuss Spain’s plans with Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

The newspaper El Pais said Moratinos would offer nonmilitary cooperation, such as training Iraqi police, if Zapatero made good on his vow.

It appears now that the visit was designed from the outset to announce the withdrawal decision, not talk about how to keep the troops in place.

Rice said in a television interview earlier Sunday in Washington that the U.S. government expected Spain to withdraw its troops.

"We know that the Spanish have been talking about, perhaps, pulling their forces out. I would not be at all surprised if they do," Rice told ABC.

Zapatero indicated nothing argued for keeping the troops in Iraq under the current situation.

"These circumstances have led me to take the decision to order the return of our troops with the maximum safety and thus in the shortest time possible," Zapatero said.

"More than anything, this decision reflects my desire to keep the promise I made to the Spanish people more than a year ago," he said.

He said Bono would give details in coming days of the process of bringing the soldiers home, and that he himself had convened an urgent meeting of Parliament to discuss his decision.

Zapatero said Spain’s government would continue to support Iraq’s stability, democratization, territorial integrity and reconstruction.

Spain will also support any U.N. or European Union effort to help Iraqis’ recover sovereignty and hold free, democratic elections, Zapatero said.

The announcement was a setback for the United States, which was eager to maintain an international veneer on an increasingly besieged coalition force dominated by the 130,000 American troops in Iraq.

The Spanish troops were stationed in south-central Iraq with responsibility for Diwaniya and the flashpoint Shiite holy city of Najaf. Eleven of the Spanish troops have died since August, including seven intelligence agents in a highway ambush in November.

In a videotape found the night before the election, an Arabic-speaking man claiming to speak for al-Qaida said the bombings were punishment for Aznar’s support of the war. Aznar’s party had been expected to win the election handily.

Zapatero’s warning of a possible Spanish withdrawal had prompted some U.S. lawmakers to charge such a move would appear to be appeasing terrorists. Zapatero rejected this saying his idea of removing them came long before the March 11 bombing.

As early as Sunday morning it had seemed Spain was not yet poised to bring the troops home.

And Aznar, who deployed the troops, said Sunday this would only lead to more violence and chaos in Iraq.

"That will not be good for Spain, not a good day for the coalition, and a very good day for those who don’t want stability and democracy in Iraq," Aznar said on "Fox News Sunday."

By DANIEL WOOLLS Associated Press Writer