WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US State Department has dropped a plan to force diplomats to serve in Iraq now that it has found enough volunteers for dozens of vacant posts, a spokesman said Monday.
In what would have been the first case since the Vietnam war, the State Department announced last month that it might have to force people to serve at the embassy in Baghdad and among reconstruction teams in Iraq's provinces.
But State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters this would not be necessary now.
"We are pleased to announce that all of the Iraq jobs have been filled by volunteers," he said.
He said a total of 252 posts have now been filled, including 48 jobs that took time to fill.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is "going to be sending out a cable to the State Department employees congratulating them on stepping up to the challenge that she put forward to them to fill all of these jobs," he said.
All of those who are volunteering to serve in Iraq are qualified, he added. "We, in no way, lowered the standards in order to get these volunteers," he said.
If necessary in the future, Rice reserved the right "to fill any future jobs by directed assignments. But we're quite pleased that we had State Department volunteers that stepped up."
On November 2, Rice made a worldwide appeal for her diplomats to serve in Iraq following uproar over new rules forcing them to work in the war-torn nation or risk dismissal.
Rice's cable came after an emotional meeting in Washington between senior State Department officials and hundreds of diplomats on the new policy forcing them to serve in Iraq effective at end-November.
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