External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh's remarks that India will reconsider sending troops to Iraq drew a sharp reaction from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Friday.
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The statement noted that there is "no change in the situation in Iraq whatsoever. Iraq has been under American occupation for the last 14 months. There is a popular uprising against the brutal occupation."
The party said that the UN Security Council resolution for the stationing of a multinational force in Iraq till 2006 did not mean that there would be a UN peace keeping force.
"The 1.38 lakh US troops will continue to remain along with a small force from its allies as the so-called multinational force. France, Germany, Russia and Canada have announced they will not send troops," the statement said.
Natwar Singh, while addressing a press conference with his US counterpart Colin Powell in Washington on Thursday, had said: "There is a resolution of the last Parliament on this issue in which we had given our opinion that we were against sending troops to Iraq. Now the situation has changed. There is a resolution unanimously passed in the United Nations and there are Arab members in it. We will look at it very carefully."
