Blair stands firm on Iraq
Pressure on Tony Blair’s policy in Iraq has been mounting over the past few weeks amidst few signs that the security situation is improving and the continuing controversy over allegations of prisoner mistreatment by British and American troops.
Yesterday to compound his difficulties the chairman of the Iraqi Governing Council Ezzedine Salim was assassinated in an apparent suicide bombing, the second member of the council to be killed since its inception. Speaking from Brussels the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw condemned the assassination, saying: “This murder shows the terrorists are trying to disrupt the transfer of power to the Iraqi people,” he said. “The terrorists are the enemies of the Iraqi people.”
Tony Blair, speaking at a press conference in Turkey said that the British troops would remain in Iraq to “get the job done” and there would be no change to the planned June 30th hand over date. He told waiting reporters: “Of course it’s difficult at the moment but the task of leadership is precisely not cut and run but to face difficulties and overcome them.”
“Have we got the will to see it through to a country that is stable and democratic and operates in the best interests of the majority of the Iraqi people? My answer to that is: we have the will. We have the leadership to do it.
“We will get the job done and we will continue until the job is done. There will be no cutting and running, we will continue until the job is done.”
Meanwhile, speculation is rising at home that more British troops may be on their way to Iraq, though this has not been confirmed by the Government. In parallel to the speculation the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, Paul Keetch, has called on the Government to allow the House of Commons to vote on whether any additional troops will be sent to Iraq.
He told the BBC this weekend that many other countries, for example Holland, were allowing their politicians to vote on their troop dispatch and said: ‘If there are compelling reasons then I would expect the Prime Minister to come to the House of Commons and tell us and allow us that vote’. There is however no indication that the Government will yield to his call.
