Reid rules out withdrawal from Iraq
John Reid has said that Britain “will not cut and run” from Iraq, and that forces will stay until the Iraqi government no longer requires them.
The defence secretary, speaking at a joint press conference with Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said that building Iraqi security forces on a non-partisan basis would be a gradual process.
“Very real progress has been made in building up the numbers, skill and ethos of Iraqi security forces, but there is still more to be done,” he said.
Dr Reid’s comments came after the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats yesterday called on the government to clarify its position on Iraq, amid signs that order was breaking down in the British controlled zone.
The Baghdad interior ministry has admitted that insurgents have infiltrated Iraq’s security forces, after British troops were forced yesterday to rescue UK soldiers from an Iraqi prison.
National security adviser, Dr Muwafaq al-Rubaie, said security forces had been “penetrated” by insurgents and terrorists.
“I can’t deny this. We are putting in place a very scrupulous, very meticulous vetting procedure in the process of recruiting a new batch of police and Iraqi army, which will, if you like, clean our security forces as well as stop any penetration in future from the insurgents and terrorists,” he told Newsnight.
“I can’t give you a percentage of the extent of the penetration, but I have to admit that the Iraqi security forces are penetrated, to what extent I don’t know.”
Colonel Bill Dunham, who leads the multinational force in Basra, said that these “rogue elements” in the security forces had to be rooted out.
Meanwhile Mr al-Jaafari said that the events in Basra on Monday, in which two kidnapped SAS soldiers were rescued from a jail by the army amid scenes of violence and protest, “will not effect [Iraq’s] relationship with Britain”.
He added that there would be a “precise investigation into the matter”.
