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Iraq

My Lords, I thank noble Lords opposite for their constructive criticism of our activities in Iraq. I know they share our desire to see Iraq develop into a stable democratic anchor within the Middle East. The issue is how best to achieve that. I turn to the specific questions, and start with the last one from the noble Lord, Lord Garden. My reply is: absolutely. In everything I do, my focus is to ensure the long-term viability of our Armed Forces. How do we define the job? It is clear that our task is to move forward to an environment where the political control of Iraq is under the Iraqi people; to move forward to the point where the Iraqi security forces can take responsibility for their own security in order to protect and serve the democratic government; and to move forward to the point where the improved economic and social development of Iraq is absolutely clear so that the benefits of democracy are clear to the Iraqi people. Those are objectives for which there is no rigid time-line. It is not helpful, as I think was said recently by President Talabani, to set out a rigid time-line. That plays into the hands of the people we are fighting. We have set out clear conditions under which we will be able to withdraw and that is as far as we can go. The roulement into Iraq which will take place shortly will slightly decrease the number of forces to about 8,000 after the reserve force has returned. We believe that that is the appropriate level, taking into account the recent handover of a number of camps to Iraqi control, including, for example, Camp Chindit. The noble Lord mentioned the Royal Highland Fusiliers, who have been stranded in Jordan, and the general point about troop transport. We recognise the vital importance to morale and not least to our operational capability of being able to move our troops. The Tristar aircraft which we use are old and it is very important to replace them as soon as possible. We have had operational difficulty, as the noble Lord mentions, with defences on the aircraft. Of course, we will take no risk with our personnel in those transfers. However, I am pleased to report to the House that the issues relating to those aircraft have now been resolved and that there are no stranded forces as a result. We are working hard on this issue and I am spending a lot of time on it. Noble Lords mentioned the issue of helicopters, which are absolutely essential to our ability to function fully in Iraq and in other theatres such as Afghanistan. We have enough helicopters, but they carry a significant burden—a matter to which we are giving significant attention. In early September we increased the number of helicopters available in theatre in Iraq. The noble Lord mentioned particular devices, possible Iranian involvement and the action we have taken. We have seen such devices before, and this experience indicates their source. They are similar to devices that have come from Hezbollah. That concerns us, but further work needs to be done in this area. As I said, we have come up against such devices before. I have seen for myself our excellent capability in countermeasures. Of course, I cannot go into further detail, but I can reassure the House that we are fully on top of that. On the Attorney-General’s visit to Iraq, noble Lords will understand that, for security reasons, we do not comment on the movements of senior personnel, but I take on board the points made by the noble Lord in his letter. I will follow them up and write to him. On contingency plans for rejection, it is clear that if the Iraqi people so decide in a referendum on a no vote, we move forward within the period under the transitional law. It will then be up to the assembly to advance future consideration of a constitution. I am not able to discuss the detail of operations. In the Statement, we described the roulement of forces and the forces that will be going to Iraq in an exposition, but it is not appropriate for me to get into the detail of what is the relative balance of those forces or types of operation. It is true, as the noble Lord mentioned, and as the Chief of the Defence Staff commented, that Iraq is having an effect on recruitment. However, we are working hard on that; we need suitable action in place; we are not complacent about it. We recognise an issue in that area and are working on it. Going further on the question of air transport, the noble Lord asked whether the Ministry of Defence has alternatives when we have problems with our Tristar aircraft. Yes, of course we have alternatives. The problem in this case was that our alternatives involved the use of chartered aircraft. We could not obtain democratic clearance in the timescale we needed for those chartered aircraft to pass through the required countries. Therefore, we judged it better to focus on fixing the technical problem relating to the aircraft concerned. We have a coherent approach. We have clear contingency plans for the situation that we face in Iraq. As I said earlier, we believe that, whereas the situation in Iraq is challenging, our forces are on top of it. We focus on long-term viability in our planning of operations; the recent roulement that we announced today reflects that.