Democrats push for Iraq withdrawal

Democrats, who won a majority in the US Congress in last week, say they will push for a phased withdrawal of US troops from Iraq to begin in four to six months.

Democrats hold 279 seats in Congress, Republicans 145

Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, who is expected to be chairman of the Senate armed services committee in the new Congress, said: “The first order of business is to change the direction of Iraq policy.

 

“We need to begin a phased redeployment of forces from Iraq in four to six months,” he said.

 

Levin was speaking on ABC’s television’s This Week programme.

   

Levin said on the show that he hoped some Republicans would emerge to join Democrats and press the administration of George Bush, the American president, to tell the Iraqi government that a US presence was “not open-ended”.

   

Bush has insisted that US troops would not leave Iraq until the Iraqis were able to take over security for their country.

        

Speaking on the same programme, Senator Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat who is expected to head the Senate foreign relations committee, said he supported Levin’s proposal for a withdrawal.

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies