WARSAW: New Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed in a speech to parliament on Friday that Warsaw would pull its 900 troops out of Iraq in 2008.
"We have decided that 2008 is the year in which the withdrawal of our troops from Iraq will both begin and end," said Tusk. It was the liberal prime minister's first policy speech since defeating Poland's conservative government in a snap election last month.
Bringing Poland's troops home from Iraq was a key manifesto pledge of Tusk's Civic Platform, which trounced the ruling Law and Justice party in the October 21 ballot. Officials from the new government have repeatedly reaffirmed the withdrawal plan. "We are going to carry out this withdrawal in the knowledge that we have fulfilled -- and even more than fulfilled -- our commitments to our allies," Tusk said Friday.
"The logistics will be worked out with our allies. In a year's time, in this chamber, I will be able to announce that our mission in Iraq has come to an end," he said. US-Polish ties strengthened after the previous government of the Law and Justice party won power in 2005, and Poland became one of Washington's most loyal allies over Iraq.
Around 2,600 Polish troops took part in the 2003 invasion, a move which sparked a bitter verbal tussle with anti-war fellow members of the European Union, notably France. But Tusk's decision to withdraw the troops is highly popular in Poland: a poll published on Tuesday found that 85 percent of respondents opposed the deployment. Only around 12 percent supported sticking with the US-led coalition.
"Poles were expecting this decision and it is with satisfaction that I can inform them of it," Tusk said. A total of 22 Polish soldiers have been killed in Iraq since 2003.
