Iraq has seen security improvements, and President Bush's decision to increase the number of U.S. ground forces in the country was a major factor in this progress, said Ali al-Dabbagh, official government spokesman for Iraq, during a speech in the Katzen Arts Center Tuesday.
While the situation in Iraq is improving, there is currently no specific date when Americans could expect a complete troop withdrawal from the country, al-Dabbagh said.
During the discussion, al-Dabbagh spoke about issues ranging from the current state of the United States-Iraq relations, Iraq's relationships with neighboring countries and the controversy surrounding private security firm Blackwater USA.
Al-Dabbagh said he personally wants to see Blackwater out of Iraq, although the Iraqi government has no official stance on the issue of revising Coalition Provisional Authority Order 17 - a law limiting the power of the government to prosecute non-Iraqi civilians working with the Coalition Provisional Authority.
"No country in the world allows a security company to operate this way," he said. "There should be certain parameters."
Iraq's government began conducting a probe into the company's actions after 17 Iraqis died following a shooting Sept. 16 in Baghdad. The government accused Blackwater employees of being responsible for the shooting, BBC News reported.
Eight days later, U.S. federal prosecutors announced they were investigating Blackwater over allegations that some of the company's employees smuggled weapons into the country and gave them to members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is recognized as a terrorist group by the United States, according to MSNBC.
Al-Dabbagh defended the Iraqi government's decision to label the Kurdistan Workers' Party a terrorist group and said his government will not accept a unilateral approach to the problem. Al-Dabbagh wants to see a joint agreement between Iraq and Turkey, he added.
"We understand how sensitive this issue is for our neighbor Turkey," he said. "They need to treat it with wisdom."
The rise of separatist militias in Iraq was a reason for the country to increase friendly relations with its neighbors, including Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia, al-Dabbagh said.
"We are calling all the neighbors to have close coordination with the Iraqis," he said. "Either you support the elected legitimate government or you support the other militias."
Separatist militias have achieved partial success in creating some cultural and religious divisions, but these divisions had not degraded Iraq into a state of civil war, al-Dabbagh said.
Students interviewed following the event had differing reactions to al-Dabbagh's speech.
Al-Dabbagh's answers were vague and he did not say anything that hadn't been said previously, said T. J. Larson, a junior in the School of Communication.
"I felt like it could have been Tony Snow in there," he said.
Brandon Krapf, a junior in the School of International Service who spent six years on active duty in Iraq, praised al-Dabbagh for speaking on campus and said it was beneficial for students to have the opportunity to learn about the situation in Iraq.
"Sometimes it's hard to get on-the-ground experience," he said.
