Iraq will hold elections in January, despite European Foreign Minister Javier Solana's statement putting the deadline in doubt, the White House said on Monday. "We fully expect it will happen in January," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters, as US and Iraqi troops launched an offensive on Fallujah, to rid it of rebels.
"The situation from the point of view of security does not give much of a hope that that will be realised," Solana told reporters in The Hague, referring to January's planned election.
Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi announced Sunday a state of emergency for 60 days saying it was necessary to ensure the successful conduct of the elections in January.
"Sixty days gets very close to the electoral time: Therefore that is not a good sign to have elections in time," Solana said.
"Well, actually, I disagree," McClellan said.
"If you look at what the United Nations election officials said just last week, they talked about the efforts already under way to register people in Iraq, and they talked about the thousands of registration clerks that are in place and the sites that are in place for people to go and register in Iraq.
"And we have continued to work closely with the Iraqi forces to address the ongoing security challenges.
"Prime minister Allawi made it very clear that he was reaching out to people who wanted to participate in the political process.
"Unfortunately, there remain some terrorists and insurgents who do not want a political solution; they seek to spread fear and chaos and destruction.
"And the only solution to deal with them is to go on the offensive and bring them to justice. That's what the Iraqi forces are doing and we are there to partner with them in that effort," McClellan said.