A Ground Self-Defense Force advance team in the southern Iraqi city of in Samawah has concluded that the security situation there is "relatively stable," the secretaries general of the two ruling parties said Saturday.
Having received a report from government officials at a Tokyo hotel, New Komeito Secretary General Tetsuzo Fuyushiba described the report as "convincing."
He indicated that the party is likely to accept the planned dispatch of the main GSDF unit during Monday's party executive meeting.
Two members of the advance GSDF unit arrived back in Japan on Friday. Saturday's meeting was held to update the ruling coalition -- the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito -- on the security situation on the ground in Samawah.
The reaction of New Komeito, which advocates a pacifist agenda, is considered a key factor in the government's efforts to win Diet approval for the SDF's mission in Iraq.
"As for the security situation, there have been no big changes and it has been relatively stable compared with other regions in Iraq," LDP Secretary General Shinzo Abe told reporters in explaining the report's contents.
In Samawah, where the main GSDF unit will be deployed, local demand for medical services, water supplies and the repair of public facilities is very high, Abe quoted the report as stating.
The government said the GSDF will hire local residents to distribute water that is purified by the GSDF unit among residents, according to the secretaries general.
Abe and Fuyushiba insisted that there had been no security problems despite some media reports that local police had arrested five apparent terrorists and seized explosives in Samawah on Monday, the day when the GSDF advance unit arrived at the city.