UK ‘must not cut and run’ from Iraq
The Iraqi deputy prime minister has said the UK and US cannot “cut and run” from his country, after he met Tony Blair for talks at Downing Street.
Barhim Salih said there could not be an “open-ended” commitment to Iraq, noting: “At the end of the day it has to be up to the Iraqi people and to the Iraqi government to establish security.”
But he told reporters: “We do believe there is no option for the international community to cut and run – the future of Iraq is vital to the future of the Middle East and the world order.”
Reports suggested Mr Blair was planning to press Mr Salih to give an assurance that British troops would withdraw from Iraq within a year. However, Downing Street denied this, saying the prime minister had kept his pledge to stay “until the job is done”.
And foreign secretary Margaret Beckett said before the meeting: “We need to keep our nerve. We need to get Iraq back on its feet. We need to establish greater stability.”
Fierce debates are currently taking place in Washington and London over the coalition’s strategy in Iraq.
A report is expected in the US next month that will set out a series of options for the future, amid concerns that the status quo, and the continuing violence, is unsustainable. More than 80 US soldiers have died in Iraq in October, one of the worst months ever.
And in Britain, the debate was prompted by general Richard Dannatt’s, call for British troops to come home “sometime soon”. Foreign Office minister Kim Howells also suggested that Iraqi forces could take over security operations in southern Iraq in a year.
“I would have thought that certainly in a year or so there will be adequately trained Iraqi soldiers and security forces – police men and women and so on – in order to do the job,” Mr Howells told BBC Radio Five Live on Saturday.
Speaking this morning, Mr Salih said he hoped to have half of the Iraqi provinces under the control of domestic security forces by the end of the year, saying it would show the Iraqi people and the international community “there is progress”.
“We are all aware of the gravity and seriousness of the situation and the government of Iraq needs to assume more responsibility.but we need the support of the international community,” he said.
Questioned about the growing calls for a change in the US and UK strategies for his country, the Iraqi deputy prime minister told Today he was “obviously concerned” by its “pessimistic” and even “defeatist” tone.
He said: “We need to be realist but not defeatist. We need to understand that there is a need of utmost urgency to deal with many of the problems of Iraq but we must not give in to panic.”
