Howard rules out retirement while the crisis with Iraq was ongoing.

SYDNEY, February 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Less than a week after Australian Prime Minister John Howard was given a historic ‘no confidence’ vote by the Australian Senate, he declared Sunday, February 9, that he ruled out retirement while the crisis with Iraq was ongoing. 

Howard was speaking from Washington, where he is scheduled to meet U.S. President George W. Bush to discuss Iraq, Howard told Australian reporters he would remain in office for the duration of the crisis, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The prime minister had previously said he would consider his future when he reaches his 64th birthday in July.

“There is only one thing on my mind at the moment. Please understand that. And that is to do the right thing by Australia in this very difficult international situation,” Howard said.

“It is the only thing on my mind and I don’t intend to get diverted from that.

“Any suggestion of walking away from my responsibilities during a time like this would be quite out of the question.”

His remarks came as the final elements of Australia’s military contingent prepared to leave for the Gulf.

A squadron of 14 F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets was formally ‘farewelled’ over the weekend and will leave for an unspecified destination in the Middle East in the coming days.

A special forces task group and navy divers will also be ‘farewelled’ next week, the final troops to join the 2,000-strong Australian military contingent preparing for a possible war.

Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill said he hoped the Australian troops would not be called upon to fight but predicted any war with Iraq would end swiftly because the Iraqi people did not have the heart for war.

“There’s not a lot of heart in it on the side of the Iraqis, Saddam Hussein is as unpopular with his own people as he is internationally,” he said.

But Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad Al-Dhuri said Australia risked its relations with the Arab world if it attacked Iraq.

“We are so far away one from another and really we have no conflict of interest; I don’t know why you have to wage war against my country,” he told commercial television.

“You will have the war not only with Iraq, but with the whole region.

“Iraq constitutes a part of this Arab world and this might affect your relationship with Arab countries.”

Australia and Britain are the only countries which have sent troops to the Gulf to join the U.S. forces build-up in preparation for war against Iraq.

The deployments, codenamed Operation Bastille, were foreshadowed by Howard on January 10.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said a war on Iraq would not involve the saturation bombing of civilian targets that occurred during the Vietnam War.

Downer said he was confident U.S. smart bomb technology would keep casualties to a minimum.

“Gone are the days when you do saturation bombing of villages with B-52s and if there is to be military action, it would not be that kind of operation,” he said.

“Obviously, there is a real risk that there will be a military conflict in Iraq and Australians are well advised to leave Iraq.”

Meanwhile, the opposition Labor Party signaled it would tone down its anti-U.S. rhetoric after U.S. ambassador Tom Schieffer last week said it had become unhelpful and emotional.

Opposition leader Simon Crean said he had an unshakable belief in the Australia-US alliance and said he would speak to backbencher Mark Latham, who described Bush as “the most incompetent and dangerous U.S. president in living memory”.

On February 5, Howard suffered a historic defeat Wednesday, February 5, in an unprecedented no-confidence vote by Australia’s Senate over his handling of the Iraq crisis.

The Labor opposition, left wing Greens, Democrats and Independent senators used their upper house majority to pass the motion by 34 votes to 31, following an emotional, 11-hour debate over the looming conflict, AFP said.

It was the first time in the 102 year history of the Australian parliament that the upper house has censured a serving prime minister with a vote of no confidence.

Howard’s conservative Liberal-National government was also censured in the motion, which condemned its decision to deploy troops to the Gulf without reference to parliament and contrary to public opinion.

Australia and Britain have been the only countries to join the United States in deploying troops to the Gulf in preparation for war in Iraq.