Hungary's government will ask lawmakers to keep its 300 troops in Iraq for an extra three months, but will withdraw the soldiers by the end of March, the country's new prime minister said.
The decision dealt a blow to US President George W. Bush's effort to hold the multinational force together.
The interim Iraqi government asked Hungary a few weeks ago to keep its troops there for about another year.
Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said Wednesday he would ask parliament to extend the troops' current mandate, which expires on Dec. 31, but only until March 31. Hungary's largest opposition party, which wants the soldiers home by the end of the year, signaled it likely would block the move.
"We are obliged to stay there until the [Iraqi] elections. To stay longer is an impossibility," Gyurcsany said. Iraq's elections are to be held by Jan. 31. Hungary, which joined the European Union in May, sent the troops as part of the US-led coalition. But the government has been under mounting pressure from citizens and opposition parties who object to the soldiers' presence.
Recent polls had shown that around 60 percent of Hungarians wanted the government to withdraw the country's troops from Iraq immediately. The announcement was a blow to Bush, who has struggled to keep the US-led multinational force from unraveling since Spain pulled out its 1,300 troops earlier this year.
Andras Simonyi, Hungary's ambassador to the US, said the government's decision to seek an extension until after the Iraqi elections was "serious and responsible."
"It is important for Hungary to be present at this critical stage of Iraq's democratization process," he told reporters.
In a letter sent to Hungary about three weeks ago, Iraq thanked the country for its contributions so far and asked it to extend the mission "to help Iraq's stabilization process," Hungarian government spokeswoman Boglar Laszlo said.
Hungary has a transportation contingent of 300 troops stationed in Hillah, south of Baghdad.
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
Showcasing phallus-shaped portable shrines and pink penis candies, Japan’s annual fertility festival yesterday teemed with tourists, couples and families elated by its open display of sex. The spring Kanamara Matsuri near Tokyo features colorfully dressed worshipers carrying a trio of giant phallic-shaped objects as they parade through the street with glee. The festival, as legend has it, honors a local blacksmith in the Edo Period (1603-1868) who forged an iron dildo to break the teeth of a sharp-toothed demon inhabiting a woman’s vagina that had been castrating young men on their wedding nights. A 1m black steel phallus sits in the courtyard of
JAN. 1 CLAUSE: As military service is voluntary, applications for permission to stay abroad for over three months for men up to age 45 must, in principle, be granted A little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has triggered an uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime. The legislation, which went into effect on Jan. 1 aims to bolster the military and demands all 18-year-old men fill out a questionnaire to gauge their suitability to serve in the armed forces, but stops short of conscription. If the “modernized” model fails to pull in enough recruits, parliament will be compelled to discuss the reintroduction of compulsory service, German
RSS