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Iraq and the wider Middle East

No, I do not have time to do so. It is all very well to call for talks with Iran and, through the E3 plus 3, we have talked endlessly with Iran, despite President Ahmadinejad’s unwillingness to do anything but urge his scientists and engineers to press ahead with enriching sufficient uranium to make an atomic bomb—because that is what is happening. I have no doubt, after several visits to Basra and Baghdad, that the Iranians are also providing explosives, detonators and training to the Shi’a militias who are trying to kill our troops and, sometimes, tragically succeeding. Let the House not forget that. In Iraq, we have to continue to help to build the capacity of the Iraqi Government to deliver security and services so that they are able to assume full responsibility for running their own affairs. Transfer of sovereign power has been achieved. Transfer of responsibility of security is under way. Our fundamental objectives remain to assist and support improved security and promote national unity; to increase Iraqi capacity to maintain security so that the Iraqi Government are able to resume responsibility for security as early as possible; and to encourage the international community, including neighbouring countries, to play a constructive and supportive role. As my right hon. Friends the Foreign Secretary and the Secretary of State for Defence have made clear, circumstances vary greatly from one part of Iraq to another. It should therefore be no surprise, and it is certainly not inconsistent, that our plans for achieving transition in Basra may appear different from those in Baghdad. Events that occur can certainly be different in their nature and impact. It was a wise Conservative Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, who warned us that it is events that we have to look out for, because they can destroy even the best laid plans. I suggest strongly that the Liberal Democrats remember that only at great risk do they set deadlines like that described earlier today by the right hon. and learned Member for North-East Fife (Sir Menzies Campbell). The scale of the challenge facing the Iraqi Government is immense. In addition to improving security, Prime Minister al-Maliki and his Government are working hard to build national reconciliation, but that process is being deliberately undermined by terrorists and others who see advantage in maintaining distrust and hatred between communities. It is those sectarians who are responsible for the ongoing murder and maiming of civilians in Iraq. Given the challenges, it is not surprising that building cohesion within Iraq’s Government of national unity and making progress in the reconciliation process have not been easy. We, of all nations, should understand how difficult and time consuming a process reconciliation can be. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence has made it clear that we will not keep our troops in Iraq a moment longer than required. Prime Minister al-Maliki is keen—as are we—to transfer responsibility for security to the Iraqis as soon as possible, but it is vital that that is done in an orderly fashion when conditions allow and that, once transferred, the Iraqi security forces are capable of maintaining security. So the international community continues to have a vital role to play. That is why we are encouraging Iraq’s neighbours and countries in the region to be supportive and, above all, to desist from encouraging further instability. I acknowledge the importance of the encouragement that the right hon. Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Hague) gave to building the international compact. I reassure the House that we fully support the efforts of the Iraqi Government and the UN to craft an international compact and build a framework for the international community to increase its political support for Iraq’s security and economic goals. We hope that that process can be finalised in the coming weeks, and the hon. Member for West Suffolk (Mr. Spring) was right to say that Turkey must be encouraged to be part of the wider process of building peace in the region. Various hon. Members, mainly on the Labour Benches, have said that life in Iraq is now much worse than it was under Saddam Hussein. Rarely have I heard such spurious comparisons in my life; the matter deserves closer examination. The Iraqi Government will require the support of all their neighbours and allies, including the UK, for some time to come. The efforts of the Department for International Development this year are focused on improving access to water and on increasing significantly the power supply for people living in southern Iraq. An enormous amount of assistance is being undertaken in Iraq, as I have seen for myself. I urge the House not to believe the purveyors of doom and gloom who claim that nothing is being improved. That is simply not true, and such assertions are merely statements of ignorance. By March of this year, assistance efforts will have provided the equivalent of 24-hour electricity for 1 million people, improved the water supply to 500,000 more people and provided safe drinking water to a further 500,000. We are also helping to establish specialist Iraqi police units to tackle corruption in the police service in Basra and to prosecute the worst offenders. We are running projects to strengthen the criminal justice system and the prison service, and to promote good governance through the Ministry of the Interior in Baghdad. I thank the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Mr. Duncan Smith) and my right hon. Friend the Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd) for reminding the House of how vile and murderous was the dictatorship that Saddam Hussein lorded over. I hope that all hon. Members will remember that when they hear the spurious and facile comparisons that assert that life for Iraqis is now so much worse than it was under that mass murderer. Of course, massive amounts remain to be done. It is right that we should press the Iraqi Government hard to take the lead in their own affairs, but it is vital that we and our coalition partners remain steadfast in our support. I urge the House to reject as nonsense the notion that that support is based on our desire to get our hands on Iraqi oil. If we had wanted to do that, we could have taken part in the same shabby and illegal deals that a number of our most prominent European partners set up with Saddam and his gangsters, but neither this Government nor our predecessors ever did so. The food-for-oil deals were appalling, and some very dubious characters did all right out of them, but neither this Government nor our predecessors were party to those stinking deals. I have been to the Iraqi oilfields and spoken to the men who—miraculously—have kept some production going, despite the complete absence of investment under Saddam’s gangsters. The Iraqi oil industry needs rebuilding. Getting the flow of oil moving again will require huge investment and expertise, but that is what will bring jobs to the thousands of young men and women in Basra who need them. I have seen all that for myself. A new hydrocarbon law is both vital and long overdue. We should give the democratic Government of Iraq our help and expertise, and not throw at them the mud of conspiracy theory. Iraq needs increased oil revenues and we should help it to get them as quickly as possible.