US defence secretary arrives in Basra
Robert Gates meets troops in Iraq
Also In The News
|
Black Book tells the story of a beautiful Jewish singer Rachel Steinn at the end of the second world war. |  |
Friday, 19, Jan 2007 09:54
US secretary of defence Robert Gates has arrived in Basra, southern Iraq, to meet with military commanders.
While the trip was not a scheduled part of his week-long visit to the Middle East, he is expected to meet with the top commander of the US armed forces, as well as from Britain, Poland, Australia, Denmark and Romania.
Following the meetings, Mr Gates will have lunch with troops.
Britain holds the largest amount of allied troops in the region, with 7,000 UK soldiers stationed in and around Basra. Major General Jonathan Shaw has recently been appointed to lead the British troops in Basra.
Talks between Maj Gen Shaw and Mr Gates are expected to centre on the possibility of UK troops departing from the area in the near future.
At the outset of his trip, Mr Gates said that he understood that the security situation in southern Iraq was very different to that in Baghdad, where US president George Bush recently announced the deployment of an additional 21,500 troops and a revised plan for peace.
Yesterday, the defence secretary met with Saudi leaders to discuss Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. In the meeting at Riyadh he briefed the leaders on his observations from his visit to Afghanistan and spoke to them about steps being taken to counter an expected Taliban offensive in the country.
He also spoke to the Saudis about the renewed vision for Iraq announced recently by Mr Bush. "They clearly want the US to succeed [in Iraq]. That's the bottom line," a Department of Defence official said.