United Left (IU) party leader Gaspar Llamazares has accused the Spanish prime minister of lying and trying to mislead the public. He said, “Jose Maria Aznar formerly stated that the Spanish troops would be sent to Iraq for humanitarian causes, but it is still not clear what their mission was (in Iraq).”
Ten Spanish soldiers have been killed since last August when the first Spanish troops were sent to Iraq. The increase of Spanish casualties abroad has put Jose Maria Aznar’s government under intense political pressure. Spain’s conservative prime minister believed that by supporting the pro-war U.S. policies he could increase Spain's international clout. He has not only failed in the attempt, but by supporting the attack on Iraq, Aznar has also gotten himself into his worst foreign policy crisis to date.
At the moment, the Spanish government is under intense pressure to withdraw its 1300 soldiers from Iraq. The death of the seven Spanish spies has increased this pressure. The latest public opinion polls show that the majority of Spanish people want their soldiers to leave Iraq.
Aznar had to apologize to his people earlier this year when no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. Now he has a bigger problem which cannot be solved with an apology. The prime minister must explain why the Spanish government has sent spies to Iraq. In order to garner public support, Aznar had said that the troops were sent for humanitarian causes.
Spies are not dispatched to foreign countries to do humanitarian work. This issue will create many problems for the Aznar administration and will ruin Spain’s public image in Iraq. Even the small minority of Iraqis who may have viewed the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq as positive will definitely now consider Spain to be an occupier country whose forces in Iraq do not have good intentions.
JS/HG
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MNA