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British troops may remain in Iraq until 2007

PLA Daily 2004-01-06

LONDON, Jan. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Monday that British troops in Iraq might stay there until 2006 or 2007.

Straw told BBC Radio 4's Today program that it was "a fact" that substantial number of troops would remain in Iraq for a long time to come.

"I can't give you an exact timescale ... but it's not going to be months, for sure," Straw said.

Asked whether it would be years, he replied: "Yes, but I can't say whether it's going to be 2006 or 2007."

The remarks were made just one day after Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed the same indications during a sudden visit to the British troops stationed in Iraq's southern city of Basra.

Straw insisted that if coalition forces were to pull out from Iraq now, there would be a security vacuum and lives would be put at risk.

He said British troops were key to providing the stability Iraq needs to allow the political process to proceed.

Comparing the situation in Iraq with the involvement of thousands of foreign troops in Afghanistan, Straw said "those thousands of troops" operating as a stabilizing force in Afghanistan "played a very important role in providing a degree of stability and security".

During his flying visit to Basra on Sunday, Blair -- Washington's chief ally in invading Iraq last March and occupying it since --told British troops they were "new pioneers of soldiering," fighting against terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and brutal regimes.

Around 10,000 Britons are now serving in Iraq.

Blair urged soldiers to concentrate on winning the peace in a country driven by a relentless insurgency against occupying forces, saying that would ensure a stable future.

He said the effort would take time and indicated the troops would be there for the long haul.

Earlier, Straw also told the Today program that while he had noconfirmation that a new audiotape, said to be from al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, was in fact from bin Laden, it was safe to assume that it was.

In the tape, aired Sunday on al-Jazeera Arabic television, the speaker purporting to be bin Laden urges Muslims to continue a jihad or holy war, and condemns Gulf Arab leaders who supported the US-led invasion of Iraq.