Political corruption is the biggest challenge, MP says

Dubai: The euphoria about the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq's major cities on Tuesday was tempered by fears of potential terrorist attacks and a preoccupation with security strategies that can thwart such violence.

However, prominent Iraqi politician Eyad Jamal Al Deen has other concerns.

Political corruption and not terrorism is the biggest challenge facing his country, he said. "Undoubtedly, there will an increase in violence," Al Deen, a member of parliament, told Gulf News in an interview even as a national holiday was observed to mark the American pullback after nearly six years of direct military intervention in the country.

"We will witness difficult days in the [foreseeable] future. But in my opinion, terrorism in Iraq is striving with its last breath."

Terrorism will "crash on a wall of concrete", Al Deen, who is a member of the list party headed by Iyad Allawi, said. The wall, he said, is the "American political will to introduce changes in the authority in Iraq".

"I don't refer to specific names or parties," Al Deen said. "Anybody who seeks to achieve political gains through killing Iraqis in terrorist attacks will hit his head against the concrete wall," he said, adding that the US is intent on ensuring that Iraq not only becomes a "stable but also a democratic country".

Meanwhile, the streets of Baghdad were quiet, after huge celebrations were held in the capital's largest park on Monday evening, many residents said.

A curfew was imposed in some areas where the American troops were expected to hand over the security responsibility to Iraqi forces.

Monday had also witnessed the former defence ministry building in Baghdad, taken over in the wake of the US-led invasion, being handed back to the Iraqi government.

"This marks the end of the rule of the multinational force," said General Aboud Qambar, the head of Baghdad Operation Command.

Nearly 200 people have been killed this month alone in terrorist attacks, but Iraqi officials have expressed confidence that Iraq's 750,000 soldiers and police are capable of maintaining order in the country.

The American pullback comes ahead of a complete US withdrawal from Iraq by the end of 2011, which many Iraqis say will be a real opportunity for celebration.

"We will celebrate when they [US troops] completely withdraw," Ahmad, an ordinary Iraqi man in his 60s, told Gulf news over the phone from Baghdad.

"As of now, they have only withdrawn a few kilometres, and this doesn't mean much," the man, who asked not be identified by his real name, added. "Anyway, it is better than nothing."

"Iraqis feel the joy when they have both security and services," Al Deen said, in reference to the dire need in Iraq for better services.

Asked about fears of violence instigated by sectarian differences among ethnic and sectarian differences, Al Deen said there had never been sectarianism in Iraq "on public level but, yes, there are political sectarian forces that are willing to spend money and spill blood for political gains. I am not concerned about a sectarian public conflict, and I underline the word public."

"Iraq's main problem is political in the first place," he said. "It is true that the security issue has many problems, and many innocent people are being killed every day, but the real strategic threat is the political issue and the issue of neighbouring countries' interference, which is an offshoot of the political corruption in Iraq."