Italy: More troops in Iraq is not an exit strategy

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said on Sunday that increased US military pressure in Iraq will not create a convincing exit strategy, Italian news media reported. The search for a way out of Iraq "doesn't happen through increasing military pressure," the Italian news agency ANSA quoted D'Alema as telling reporters during a visit in Doha, Qatar. He said it was his "strong impression" that in U.S. planning for Iraq, "the fundamental aspect continues to be that of military action and its reinforcement, and this aspect doesn't convince us," ANSA quoted the minister as saying. A key to solving the Iraqi situation is setting up "police forces with multiethnic and multi-religious character," D'Alema was quoted as saying. "This type of force ought to be and could be able to prevent a clash of ethnic or religious nature, and one doesn't understand how it could be impeded by a foreign army," the minister said, according to ANSA.