DUBAI, Dec 5: Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal branded on Monday US policies in Iraq a “fiasco” but said American troops should not pull out any time soon due to the perilous security situation. “Clearly, the United States misunderstood the ballgame completely in Iraq ... yes, it’s a fiasco,” he told an Arab media forum in Dubai.

“Iraq is a very complicated country and I am not sure the policies of the United States are actually good for Iraq.”

Prince Alwaleed is a nephew to King Abdullah, a global investor and a prominent figure both inside the kingdom and internationally.

But Prince Alwaleed said ending the US occupation of Iraq — a demand of several Arab governments — would not fix the problem.

“In the short term, the United States can’t leave at all, it cannot withdraw (troops) for the sake of the Iraqis. It can only do so when Iraq is ready.”

One US mistake in Iraq was allowing hundreds of newspapers and several television stations to be set up, he said.

“Right now, the last thing Iraqis need is so many voices quarrelling through the media. This is not the time for the luxury of having so many TV channels and 200 newspapers, you can’t impose US democracy in Iraq,” said Prince lwaleed, who owns stakes in US media conglomerates such as Time Warner Inc. and News Corp.

In a newspaper interview published on Monday, Prince Alwaleed said he would not invest in Iraq now due to the chaos gripping the country and advised other entrepreneurs to do the same. “You don’t go and invest when you have civil strife, when you have a country that’s disintegrating, when you have war and killings,” he told the Saudi daily Arab News.—Reuters