Kerry: Middle East countries "frustrated" by U.S. policy

1/12/2005 10:00:00 PM GMT

He may not have gotten into the While House, but Senator John Kerry is still standing by his beliefs months later.

Whilst on a visit to the Middle East the former U.S. presidential candidate said he believed the countries of the region are frustrated by the United States policy in Iraq and that they feel too little is being done to end the violence there.

Kerry had repeatedly criticised the Bush administration during his presidential campaign and showed no sign of letting up.

"All of the countries of the region have a significant stake in the outcome and yet they are frustrated," Kerry said in Cairo, where he met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. "They are frustrated because they don't feel that the steps necessary to be able to advance the stability of Iraq are really being taken."

Furthermore, Kerry believes that Washington should do more to build up Iraqi security forces saying "We could be and we should be doing a very significant amount more military training."

One way of attaining that goal is to take advantage of Egypt's offer to help train Iraqi security forces. Egypt is currently training 146 Iraqi officers, but has offered to train 500 or more, he said. "They offered to do so. It isn't happening and in the insecurity of Iraq I think it's critical to use every possible avenue of creation of stability forces as fast as possible," Kerry stated.

"I think it's an excellent offer by Egypt. I think it's a welcome offer and I think it should be taken up, fast," he added.

The training of the Iraqi officers is in line with Egypt's policy of not sending troops but of providing help in other aspects.

British public support to war down to an all time low

The continuing violence in Iraq has had an effect on public opinion. In the run-up to the upcoming Iraqi elections, public support in Britain for the war in Iraq has fallen to an all time low.

Though Downing Street was one of the staunchest supporters and ally to the U.S. for the war in Iraq, the British public have shown their disapproval in a poll conducted by Populas and published in The Times newspaper.

Only 29% of Britons believe going to war in Iraq was the right thing to do, in comparison to the 64% who felt that way in April 2003.
However, a strong majority, 58 percent, still favour the go-ahead to be given for the elections to take place later this month.

The number of people who said that waging war was the wrong step to take went down slightly from 57 percent to 53 percent, while those who couldn't quite decide on a position had risen from 13 percent to 18.

But more bad news for Tony Blair's government. A higher percentage of Labour Party supporters believe that war was the wrong thing to do, jumping up from 37 percent to 44%.

Another strong opponent of the war was the Pope who believed that UN inspectors should have been given more time to conduct their job.

However, it now seems the Vatican has accepted the situation and according to the U.S. ambassador, officials from the Holy See want the U.S. to remain in Iraq.

"We had an honest disagreement between two great leaders and what happened, happened," says Ambassador Jim Nicholson. "I will say that virtually everyone I talk to at the Vatican do not want the United States to pull out of Iraq. They want us to stay in there, solidify and pacify Iraq and help it become a free, stable and democratic country."