The US Deputy Secretary of State has said the United States is "delighted with the co-operation of Pakistan, which has allowed the administration to get a lot of information on a possible attack."
Richard Armitage said this in response to a question, during an interview with daily Al-Hayat on Friday. He was asked about the heightened alert in the three US cities in the wake of new terrorist attack, and that it was feared that there could be an attack on the United States before the elections-
"To what extent are you alarmed?" "We're quite alarmed," he said, stating "some people, who we believe, were trying to purchase weapons to cause us harm." He referred to the recent arrest of suspects in Britain and the United States.
"But the amount of chatter that we've seen, and the amount of talk on jihadist websites leads us to believe that they're intent on trying to repeat the experience of Madrid; that is, to try to disrupt our political process and strike us in a way that both harms the political process and harms our nation, perhaps in the financial area."
ISLAMIC TROOPS: On the Saudi initiative of sending Islamic troops to Iraq, Armitage said: "I think, it's a genuine gesture on the behalf of the Saudi Government," who are really seeking a peaceful resolution of the problems of Iraq.
He, however, said that he did not "see much willingness on the part of many of the governments of the region, or farther beyond, to send troops." He, however, said "discussions still continue with those countries to see if they may be willing to." Asked 'Is this something the Iraqi government agreed to, sending Islamic and other troops, because it doesn't seem to be calling for that?,' Armitage said the Iraqi government has said that they're not dismissive of all Muslim troops serving Iraq, but they don't want troops from the neighbours, which, he said was the difference.
Asked that there was some talk at one point of Morocco and Tunisia sending troops, to which he replied in affirmative, stating there was some discussion, and Morocco has decided that's not the best use of its forces.
"There was discussion of Pakistan, or Bangladesh, perhaps, being involved. But more recently, there's even been discussion of some of the states of the former Soviet Union perhaps being willing to send a small force to protect the United Nations personnel.
These things are all in some stage or another of conversation."
He responded in the affirmation asked of postponement of Afghan elections.
Asked was it possible to happen that in Iraq as well, he said "anything's possible, but I know the United Nations and the Iraqi Electoral Commission are dead set on having elections in January of '05."
He noted, just parenthetically, that the delay, in their elections in Afghanistan, "has had a very interesting effect."
It has allowed almost 90 percent of the eligible voters to enlist in the voting rolls, which is a pretty phenomenal development, when you think of how far Afghanistan has had to come. After two decades of war and the horror of the Taleban rule, they really are hungry for democracy.
Told that the elections were dependent on the security situation of Iraq, to which Armitage said that's certainly the long pole of the tent. "To the extent the security situation is resolved more positively, it will be easier to get people out to vote.
"We're working alongside the United Nations and the Iraqi government to bring this about by January of '05."