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Straw confirms UK troops to stay in Iraq for years

IRNA

London, Jan 5, IRNA -- Foreign Secretary Jack Straw confirmed Monday 
that British troops were likely to be in Iraq for years and not 
months. 
"I can`t say whether it`s going to be 2006 or 2007," Straw told 
BBC Radio. 
He said he could "not give an exact timetable" but added that 
remaining in Iraq would be subject to a "status of forces agreement" 
between the new sovereign government and the US-UK coalition. 
If coalition forces were to pull out from Iraq now, he said, this 
would "not only put lives at risk and cause a loss of life, but would 
also be a setback for the political process." 
The foreign secretary compared the situation in Iraq with the 
involvement of thousands of foreign troops in Afghanistan for over two
years since the war and suggested that this was similar to what the US
and UK wanted to achieve in Iraq. 
"Thousands of troops within that time period have played a very 
important role in providing a degree of stability and security which 
has then enabled the political process to take place and that`s 
exactly the kind of situation we want to see replicated in Iraq," he 
said. 
Straw also said that he had no reason to believe that the July 1 
target for handing over power to the Iraqi authorities would not be 
met. 
"It is a complex situation but everybody is committed to the 
decisions that were made in the Iraqi governing council and by the 
coalition provisional authority on November 15 to move towards that 
date," he said. 
HC/BH/210 
End