U.S. Envoy Hails Armenian Plans To Send Troops To Iraq
By Anna Saghabalian 16/09/2004 09:42
Radio Free Europe, Czech Rep.
Sept 15 2004
John Evans, the new U.S. ambassador to Armenia, commended on Wednesday
official Yerevan for its plans to join America’s “coalition of the
willing” in Iraq with a small unit of non-combat troops.
“We salute Armenia for its announced intention to send a transportation
unit along with deminers and some medical personnel to Iraq,” Evans
told a news conference in the Armenian capital. He said they could
greatly assist the U.S.-led occupation force which has been struggling
to pacify the war-torn nation.
The Armenian government first announced its intention to deploy up
to 50 servicemen in Iraq a year ago and has since been discussing
practical modalities of the operation with U.S. officials. A
liaison officer of the Armenian armed forces was posted to the U.S.
military’s Central Command in Florida late last year.
A group of Armenian military officials are due to visit an area in
central southern Iraq administered by a Polish-led multinational
division to prepare for the deployment by the end of this year. A
relevant Polish-Armenian agreement was signed during President Robert
Kocharian’s visit to Warsaw earlier this month.
The planned deployment, which requires parliament approval, is
stirring up debate in Armenia, with two top army generals publicly
indicating their opposition to the idea. They argued that Armenia’s
largely symbolic military engagement could trigger terrorist attacks
against Iraq’s ethnic Armenian community.
Evans said Washington welcomes a public debate on the issue in
Armenia. The envoy also reaffirmed U.S. approval of the last-minute
cancellation of NATO-led military exercises which were scheduled to
begin in Azerbaijan on Monday. The NATO leadership pointed to Baku’s
refusal to Armenia’s participation in the maneuvers.
“We do believe that the NATO authorities made the right decision to
cancel this exercise,” Evans said. But he was quick to indicate that
the move should not be seen as a diplomatic victory for Armenia,
saying that it hurt both parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
It was Evans’s first contact with the media since his arrival in the
country a month ago. The 56-year-old career diplomat, who introduced
himself to reporters in Armenian, had previously headed the Office
of Russian Affairs in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs of
the U.S State Department.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress