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Iraq (Basra Incident)

I thank the right hon. and learned Gentleman for his welcome. He can be assured that in the short time that I have been in the Ministry of Defence—and I have been in the Ministry itself for practically all the time that I have been the Secretary of State for Defence—I have already come to the same conclusion that he urges on me. In relation to the conclusion that he draws about the necessity of co-operation with the provincial authorities in reaching the joint objective of being able to hand over, he is right—and he can rest assured that we will take any opportunity to impress those arguments on the Iraqi authorities. I do not suggest that the steps that have been taken over the past few days are the eventual solution to the challenge, but they are certainly a step in the right direction. Because of the significant hard work by people on the ground in relation to the authorities, those steps are in a direction that would have been unthinkable a comparatively short time ago.