SPAIN: Spain's prime minister elect, José Luís Rodriguez Zapatero, yesterday described the occupation of Iraq as a "fiasco" and rejected appeals by President Bush for western unity, writes Jane Walker, in Madrid.
Speaking on the Onda Cero radio station, just three days after his surprise election victory, he repeated once more his campaign promise to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq by June 30th.
Spain currently has 1,300 troops in Iraq involved mainly in peacekeeping duties.
It is unclear whether he will carry out the planned replacement of those troops with fresh forces, scheduled for next month.
The opposition to Spain's involvement in the Iraq invasion was overwhelming, and Mr Zapatero's pledge to withdraw them was widely welcomed by the electorate.
Even on election night, he said that troops would be brought home by the end of June, unless they come under United Nations command before that date.
Mr Bush has said that a withdrawal of allied troops from Iraq would be tantamount to giving in to Al-Qaeda blackmail.
As Spain tries to come to terms with the enormity of the terrorist attack last week which killed 201 and injured over 1,500, the investigation into the perpetrators continues. There are six men currently being held in connection with the massacre, which has been claimed by Islamic terrorists, almost certainly connected to Al-Qaeda. The investigating judge has declared the case secret and introduced a gagging order.
The acting interior minister, Mr Angel Acebes, said yesterday that the investigation is advancing "along good lines". He said all measures were being taken to detain the culprits as soon as possible and that experts were continuing to study the videotape left near the Madrid mosque last Saturday and fingerprints and other evidence found in the unexploded bomb left in one of the trains.
Mr Acebes announced new and tougher security measures to prevent a second terrorist attack. He said there would be reinforced security at airports, railway stations, ports and public buildings. The armed forces will, he said, be used to back up the police "in sensitive areas" such as air space, sea routes and some ports. Intelligence and information gathering will involve anti- terrorist, security and armed forces as well as all branches of the civil guard, national police, regional police and local police forces.
Mr Acebes added that all these measures had been agreed with the Socialist Party who will take over in about six weeks. "They will be introduced gradually over the next few days," he said.
The minister stressed the importance of co-operation with other European countries. "Not only should we have internal anti-terrorist measures, but they must be international and involve all countries. We have to present a common front, a common anti-terrorist law with common sentences," he concluded while announcing that a summit meeting of European Justice and Interior Ministers would be held in Brussels on Friday.