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Jordan to train 32,000 Iraqi policemen
Amman, Oct 29: Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher announced that his country would start as of Saturday the training of 32,000 Iraqi policemen and an unspecified number of air navigators at a cost of 20 and 25 million dollars.
Amman, Oct 29: Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher announced that his country would start as of Saturday the training of 32,000 Iraqi policemen and an unspecified number of air navigators at a cost of 20 and 25 million dollars.
''The decision has already been endorsed by the cabinet. The training will start on the first of next month,'' Muasher said in remarks to reporters yesterday.
Speaking at an earlier press conference in Amman, Muasher denied media reports that the training would cost as much as 1.5 billion dollars.
Under the contract, the country's public security department will conduct successive training courses led by skilled trainers from within security department ranks or by retired policemen. In addition, Muasher said the Jordanian government would shortly ''open talks with the Iraqi side'' regarding 13 civilian aircraft which took refuge in Jordan during the 1991 war for liberation of Kuwait.
Muasher reiterated Jordan's rejection of Iraq's neighbours dispatching troops to the country, but said his country backed the upcoming meeting of the foreign ministers of the countries surrounding Iraq to be held in Damascus.
''We feel the meeting wins urgency for diagnosing the situation in Iraq,'' he said. The participating countries - Iran, Turkey, Syria and Jordan - will reiterate their position not to intervene in Iraq's internal affairs and to safeguard its sovereignty.
Muasher renewed Jordan's rejection of a federated Iraq on the basis of ethnic or racial distribution of Kurds in the north, Sunni Moslems in the centre and Shiites in the south.?
''Such a project is a recipe for disintegrating Iraq and we have warned the US administration against it,'' Muasher said.
Muasher indirectly criticised the US-led military coalition in Iraq for the continued anarchy in the country.
''From the very start, we cautioned against the consequences of the disintegrating civilian and military infrastructure in Iraq. That contributed to the chaos and lack of security we witness today there,'' he said.
He said his country was also against the latest Israeli escalation against Syria and disclosed that the Jordanian leadership was ''employing its external ties to help stop this escalation''.
The Jordanian Foreign Minister indicated that the Israeli-Syrian escalation and renewing support for the quartet's road map would be high on the agenda of King Abdullah's talks with US President George W. Bush in Washington in December.
Muasher said his government had ''no plans to extradite any member of Iran's opposition People's Mujahedeen to the Iranian government''.
Iranian opposition members fled Iraq during the US-led war that ended in the ouster of President Saddam Hussein's regime. Bureau Report
Speaking at an earlier press conference in Amman, Muasher denied media reports that the training would cost as much as 1.5 billion dollars.
Under the contract, the country's public security department will conduct successive training courses led by skilled trainers from within security department ranks or by retired policemen. In addition, Muasher said the Jordanian government would shortly ''open talks with the Iraqi side'' regarding 13 civilian aircraft which took refuge in Jordan during the 1991 war for liberation of Kuwait.
Muasher reiterated Jordan's rejection of Iraq's neighbours dispatching troops to the country, but said his country backed the upcoming meeting of the foreign ministers of the countries surrounding Iraq to be held in Damascus.
''We feel the meeting wins urgency for diagnosing the situation in Iraq,'' he said. The participating countries - Iran, Turkey, Syria and Jordan - will reiterate their position not to intervene in Iraq's internal affairs and to safeguard its sovereignty.
Muasher renewed Jordan's rejection of a federated Iraq on the basis of ethnic or racial distribution of Kurds in the north, Sunni Moslems in the centre and Shiites in the south.?
''Such a project is a recipe for disintegrating Iraq and we have warned the US administration against it,'' Muasher said.
Muasher indirectly criticised the US-led military coalition in Iraq for the continued anarchy in the country.
''From the very start, we cautioned against the consequences of the disintegrating civilian and military infrastructure in Iraq. That contributed to the chaos and lack of security we witness today there,'' he said.
He said his country was also against the latest Israeli escalation against Syria and disclosed that the Jordanian leadership was ''employing its external ties to help stop this escalation''.
The Jordanian Foreign Minister indicated that the Israeli-Syrian escalation and renewing support for the quartet's road map would be high on the agenda of King Abdullah's talks with US President George W. Bush in Washington in December.
Muasher said his government had ''no plans to extradite any member of Iran's opposition People's Mujahedeen to the Iranian government''.
Iranian opposition members fled Iraq during the US-led war that ended in the ouster of President Saddam Hussein's regime. Bureau Report