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Iraq

I thank the right hon. and learned Gentleman for his words of support and his plaudits for our forces. They are well deserved and his views are reflected on both sides of the House.       The right hon. and learned Gentleman asked how the job being done would be measured and by whom. I hope that in the four criteria that I outlined in my statement I have set out the how part of that—in other words, the criteria by which we shall judge the job being done. The capacity of the Iraqi security forces to take the lead themselves will be judged first, on their numbers and capability; secondly, the level of capacity of the provincial government to deal with the new security situation; thirdly, the level of support that it is necessary for us to give them; and, fourthly, the level of the terrorist threat. As to the when, will that be an event? No, it will be a process. Will that process achieve the necessary conditions in every part of the country at the same time? No, so geographically, and in time lines, it will be a continuing process. Who will decide that? Obviously, at the end of the day every sovereign nation, including ourselves, has the right, if it so wishes, to make any decision that it wishes. The right hon. and learned Gentleman, or any other hon. Member, would not want us to take a decision that dishonoured a pledge that we made to the Iraqi people and to their democratically elected representatives. Of course, the decision will be made in consultation with the Iraqis. At the end of the day, the truth is that we do not want to be there any longer than necessary. Quite frankly, the Iraqi politicians, who are democratically elected and accountable to their people, do not want us there any longer than we are needed and necessary either. That is precisely what Prime Minister Jafaari and I said at the press conference some two weeks ago. However, if we read what he and President Talibani said this morning, it is obvious that the minority of terrorists who are attempting to claim that we are not there with the support of Iraqi people are being absolutely misleading. We are there, with the support of the Iraqi people, for as long as it is necessary to secure their own developing democracy. The right hon. and learned Gentleman asks about air transport, and he has written to me on that point. I can tell him that we have done everything that we can to overcome those difficulties, and they have been overcome. Without going into details, the problem is very often not the aircraft, but having suitable aircraft with defensive suites. The safety of our troops travelling in and out of Iraq is paramount, and we have now managed to overcome that the difficulties. The right hon. and learned Gentleman asked about the transitional period during which it is envisaged that the company from the reserve theatre in Cyprus might be deployed in Iraq. That is of the order of six weeks in operational terms. The right hon. and learned Gentleman asked about the police in Basra and infiltration. In any theatre of combat in the world where competing factions have been at war with each other, there is always a problem of split loyalties when rehabilitating and restructuring the police force afterwards. The question is not whether those split loyalties exist, but whether we can diminish them by human rights training and training the police to be as objective as possible. Wherever we look in the world, we find that policing is very often the last nut to be cracked. Incidentally, that applies in our own country, as well as in Bosnia or anywhere else. However, although there are certain elements in the police service in Iraq about whom we ought to be worried, I would not want him to believe that that is the majority or anything like it. Let us remember that every time Iraqi policemen put on their uniforms in the morning, they go out to face the threat of death. Many of them have died leading operations. Even in Basra, there were police around the Jameat police station trying to ensure that the 250 to 300 militant demonstrators did not approach it. So it is not the case that all the police, even in Basra, were antagonistic towards us. We keep the issue of helicopters under review. On the question of whether we reach out to Sunni politicians, I have to say that we reach out to everyone in Iraq. We will combat the terrorists, force with force, for as long as they deploy it. However, for any Sunni politician who wants to get involved in the process, we encourage the Shi’a to reach out their hands and arms to the Sunnis to be inclusive, and we encourage the Sunni politicians to engage in politics, not terrorism. That is the position that we take, and I think that it is the right one.