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Iraq (Basra Incident)

Like others in all parts of the House, I want to pay tribute to those who lost their lives this weekend and to welcome my right hon. Friend to his new position. I was in Basra in March, along with my hon. Friend the Member for North Durham (Mr. Jones), and I spoke to senior military officers, who agreed that there is a fine line between our presence there being part of the solution and being part of the problem. However, they are much of the opinion that our presence is still part of the solution, because we are training the Iraqi forces to manage their own security and thereby reducing the need for the British presence in the long term. Given the support given by the Iraqi forces to the British troops to quell the unrest after the crash, does my right hon. Friend agree that that is yet another indication that we are still part of the solution, not part of the problem?