CAIRO: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Monday that the presence of US and other foreign troops in Iraq will lead to more terrorism and harm the whole region, the official MENA news agency reported.
“The continued presence of US and other foreign troops in Iraq will lead to more terrorist acts in the country and harm the security of the whole region, he told reporters on his way to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
Egypt is a key regional ally of the US and receives the second largest amount of aid from Washington after Israel.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in Baghdad on Monday he favored a short pause in troop drawdowns from Iraq after about 30,000 American soldiers have been sent home by July.
Gates said in July that Egypt was concerned the US might “withdraw precipitously from Iraq, or in some way that is destabilizing for the entire region.
The 157,000-strong US force in the insurgency-wracked country is currently on track to be reduced by at least 20,000 troops plus another 7,000 to 10,000 members of support units by next July.
Gates has previously expressed the hope that the drawdown can continue to about 100,000 troops by year’s end.
Mubarak also repeated his rejection of any military solution to Iran’s crisis with the United States, which has accused the Islamic republic of carrying out secret nuclear work and wanting to acquire the atomic bomb.
The veteran Egyptian leader “warned that any military action against Iran will trigger more global terrorism and will jeopardize US interests worldwide, MENA said. -AFP
