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Straw denies Iraq war has increased terrorist threat

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, March 15, IRNA -- Foreign Secretary Jack Straw Monday rejected
suggestions that Britain has exposed itself to a greater threat of 
terror attack because of its role in the Iraq war. 
"I do not believe we are less safe as a result of the activity we 
have taken," Straw told the BBC hours after it was announced Spain`s 
Socialist opposition won power from the pro-war Prime Minister Jose 
Maria Aznar following last Thursday`s bombings in Madrid. 
He insisted that "over the medium term, still more the long term, 
we will be much safer." But he accepted that so far people were 
feeling that they have become a bigger target and there was going to 
be "a lot of this argument." 
The Daily Telegraph Monday described the surprise defeat of 
Aznar`s government as a "serious blow to the American-led war on 
terror. 
"The Socialists have promised to withdraw 1,300 Spanish troops 
from Iraq. That would break the unity of the coalition policing Iraq 
and would be portrayed in the Arab world as a victory for Al-Qaeda," 
it said. 
The British foreign secretary said that all he can say is "no one 
should get the idea that somehow if you were a country which was 
opposed to the military action in Iraq, you are less of a target for 
al Qaida." 
To emphasize the point, he reverted to the use of language that 
ministers had previously dropped because of the offense caused to 
Muslims by describing Al-Qaeda as "terrible Islamic fanatics" and 
renaming the war as being against "Islamic terrorism." 
"If you look at where this terrorism takes place, the truth about 
these fanatics is that unless you are 100 percent with the terrorists,
you are seen to be 100 percent against them," Straw argued. 
He warned that nobody should believe that somehow we can "opt out 
of the war against Islamic terrorism." The idea that somehow there is 
"some exemption certificate for this war against terrorism is utter 
nonsense," he said. 
In a separate interview with the Financial Times Monday, the 
foreign secretary further described as "completely wrong" allegations 
that Spain, the UK and other supporters of the Iraq war had increased 
the threat of bringing terrorist attacks upon themselves. 
"One thing I am clear about is that Al-Qaeda will go on and would 
have gone on irrespective of the war in Iraq until they are firmly 
stopped," he said. 
Straw also repeated that he remained convinced that the judgment 
made to go to war against Iraq last year remained the "right one" 
despite the failure to find weapons of mass destruction. 
"The difficulty at the moment is that we still don`t know the 
truth about Saddam`s WMD holdings and his weapons program capability,"
he said, but he added that he remained "worried about why we haven`t 
been able to pin down the evidence." 
HC/LS/210 
End