"the war in Iraq was useless, it caused more problems than it solved, and it brought in terrorism."

US-led war brought terrorism to Iraq
By Agence France Presse (AFP)

VIENNA: The US-led invasion brought terrorism to Iraq and caused more problems than it solved, UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said in an interview published Monday by the Austrian daily Salzburger Nachrichten.

He also said he believed Iraq could become a normal country, but that the interim government faced a challenge in proving it was not "a puppet of the Americans, which is difficult to do when there are 150,000 foreign soldiers in the country."

Brahimi, visiting Austria at the invitation of Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said "the war in Iraq was useless, it caused more problems than it solved, and it brought in terrorism."

He said attacks on US-led forces were carried out by Al-Qaeda terrorists with the support of foreign fighters as well as by people loyal to the ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. But there was "a large group of Iraqis who will attack any foreign occupation force out of patriotism," he said.

Brahimi expressed confidence in Iraq's ability to return to normal, but said "the question is, how long that will take and how much it will cost."