Sharm-el-Sheikh, 2007/05/04, IRIB

On the first day of the international conference on Iraq security being held in the Egyptian city of Sharm-el-Sheikh the participants of the conference demanded international support for Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the conference called on the participating countries to waive the debts of Iraq.

Representatives from 50 countries and delegations from international organization are taking parting in the two-day Sharm-el-Sheikh conference. The conference is aimed at winning international support for contribution to the establishment of security and stability in war-torn Iraq and the reconstruction of that country.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged world countries to further support Iraq and waive its outstanding debts. This is the first time that the US officials are seriously raising the issue of international support for Iraq.

The US support for holding the Sharm-el-Sheikh conference is viewed as an effort to push forward Washington objectives. Under conditions when the Bush administration is under domestic and international pressures to set a timetable for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, the talk of international support for Iraq is a move to ease such pressures.

Of course the active participation of the international community in the Sharm-el-Sheikh conference showed that the world is willing to solve the Iraqi problems. Most participants believe that helping the Iraqi nation is different from assisting the US-led occupation forces, because the root cause of all security problems of Iraq is the continued illegal presence of the occupation forces in that country. Particularly when Bush is resisting the international call for withdrawing troops from Iraq and still insists on the continuation of the unwanted military presence on the false pretext of fighting terrorism. But international support can be effective only when the US-led forces put an end to their occupation of Iraq. This is while the United States seeks to save itself from the quagmire it has been stuck in, with the help of the international Iraq conference, especially when Rice has said that the US will continue its activity in Iraq with the cooperation of multi-national forces. But analysts believe that the continuation of such an approach will fail to win the support of the international community and hopes will fade on the reconstruction of Iraq.

Almost all the participants in the Sharm-el-Sheikh conference believe that the only solution to the Iraqi crisis is to put an end to the occupation of that country and respect the will and determination of the Iraqi nation.

Iraq-Confab-Sharm-el-Sheikh