January 26, 2007	Friday	Muharram 06, 1428

DAVOS, Jan 25: The US-led occupation of Iraq after Saddam Hussein's ouster was an “idiot” decision, Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi said on Thursday during the World Economic Forum here.

But he warned that winning the “war” in Baghdad, where US troop levels have recently been reinforced, would be crucial to ending the spiral of violence in the country.

The Shia vice-president's comments came just a day after the influential US Senate Foreign Relations committee rejected President George W. Bush's plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq.

The Committee, whose recommendation is not binding but is certain to hamper the plan's passage through the Democrat-controlled Congress, voted 12-9 on a no-confidence resolution slamming the US president's project as “not in the national interest.” ”Iraqis and Iraq had been put under occupation, which was an idiot decision,” the vice-president said in a debate, while cataloguing mistakes accumulated by all sides -- US and Iraqi -- over the past four years.

Mr Mahdi told the meeting of political and business leaders in the Swiss resort of Davos that the plan to stifle violence in Baghdad could work.

“If we can win this war in Baghdad, I think we can change the course of events,” he said.

But Mahdi, who outlined plans for a supposedly near impermeable security ring around the capital, cautioned that Iraqi troop numbers also needed to be boosted, not only those of the US-led coalition in Iraq.

“As Iraqis, we need more troops in Baghdad. These are Iraqi troops. It's up to multinational forces to decide,” Mr Mahdi said.

The vice president insisted that more Iraqi regiments should be moved from other parts of the country into the capital.

Despite his reference to a “war” in Baghdad, the Iraqi vice president rejected suggestions that his country was in the grip of a civil war.

“Some people say we are in a civil war. I don't agree with that,” he said, adding that civilians were embroiled in “a war that targets the whole of society.” Mr Mahdi said most attacks inside Baghdad were launched from other parts of the country.

A cordon under united command should be thrown around the capital to ward off attacks, while troops would clear Baghdad neighbourhood by neighbourhood, he explained.

“Baghdad will be encircled by... checkpoints, so there will be no free entry.” ”I think with this plan we would mark some points, I don't think we will end violence but I think we can change some of the course of events and have a more peaceful capital,” he added.

The vice president also pinpointed Iraq's neighbourhood as “one of the factors of violence” and supported suggestions for a regional “round table” and a partnership.

“They should not interfere in the affairs of each other but they should use peaceful means to solve problems,” Mr Mahdi added, referring to Iraq's six neighbours, including Iran.

“To understand correctly what's going on in Iraq, we have to see that there are some powers within the country's history and within the neighbouring environment that are launching a certain violence against the society.”

The United States, which has repeatedly accused Iran of interfering in its neighbour's affairs, promised on Wednesday that it would soon release evidence of Iranian networks operating inside Iraq.

Former Iranian reformist president Mohammad Khatami said during a debate in Davos: “New-born democracy in Iraq is under threat. Huge threat.” He later told journalists that he hoped for dialogue between the United States, Iran and Syria to “work out all these problems rather than having misunderstandings.”—AFP