Al-Qaida threat ‘may have increased’
The threat to the UK posed by al-Qaida has increased as a result of the war in Iraq, a committee of MPs concludes.
The fragmentation of the terrorist group into autonomous local cells, linked by a common ideology, will make it harder to tackle the threat of international terrorism, they say.
The House of Commons foreign affairs committee is also concerned at the deterioration of the security situation in Iraq and, of late, Afghanistan.
On Iran, it warns that any military action would be likely to “unleash a host of extremely serious consequences”.
In a new report, the committee says that the threat from international terrorism in the UK, from al-Qaida and others, has “not diminished and may well have increased” despite successes in targeting terrorist leaders and infrastructure.
They warn: “Al-Qaida continues to pose an extremely serious and brutal threat to the United Kingdom and its interests.”
According to the report, the situation in Iraq has been both a source of “propaganda” for Islamic extremists and a “crucial training ground” for international terrorists associated with al-Qaida.
The MPs are also concerned by the deterioration of the security situation in Iraq and call upon the government to draw out the circumstances in which it would withdraw British forces from the country.
The recent attacks on British soldiers in Afghanistan have led the committee to believe that the tactics of Iraqi insurgents are being replicated in the country.
It also warns against the blurring of the British army’s role between controlling insurgency and tackling opium production.
Iran’s nuclear intentions are a “clear cause for international concern”, the MPs say, but they call for greater consensus among UN security council members on how best to tackle the problem.
On the possibility of military action, it says it “would be likely to unleash a host of extremely serious consequences both in the Middle East and elsewhere and would not be guaranteed to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons in the long term.”
It adds that “all possible diplomatic efforts must be applied to reaching a negotiated agreement with Iran”, and urges it to impress this point upon the US government.
