Straw: Iraqi elections show the terrorists they cannot win
The success of the Iraqi elections at the weekend has shown the terrorists that they cannot win, the Foreign Secretary has said.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Jack Straw, said the elections were a “real blow to this disgusting campaign of violence and intimidation,” insisting that, as a result, “terrorists now know that they cannot win.”
Mr Straw said that voting “went far better than many had anticipated” and had been “a moving demonstration that democracy and freedom and universal values to which people everywhere aspire.”
But, that there should be no triumphalism over yesterday’s elections in Iraq, only a “great sense of relief.”
Results will be known within 10 days, and certified by the end of February. The new governing arrangements are then expected to be in place by the end of the month.
Mr Straw said that despite the “deep divisions” on Iraq, the elections should be a cause that would unite the House, and the international community, against the insurgency in Iraq.
He said that there had been a “substantial” turnout in the north and south of the country, but admitted there had been problems in the Sunni areas which have suffered most from the insurgency. But large numbers of people had “defied terrorist intimidation” and the threat that voters would be killed.
Mr Straw also said that it was a “real tribute” to the Iraqi security forces that not one suicide bomber got through the security cordon outside the polling centres.
Shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Ancram said that the high turnout at the elections had proved the pessimists wrong and was “good for Iraq, good for the Middle East and good for freedom”.
But, he also called for answers on £9 billion of oil money earmarked for reconstruction that has allegedly gone missing and asked when foreign troops would leave the country.
Liberal Democrat spokesman, Sir Menzies Campbell, called for the withdrawal of UK personnel by the end of 2005, when the current UN mandate ends.
