Defense Secretary denies UK will 'cut and run' from Iraq
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Aug 19, IRNA
UK Troops-Iraq
Defense Secretary John Reid Friday insisted that British troops will stay in Iraq until job is done.
Reid denied that Britain would 'cut and run,' saying that those who suggest that the coalition troops no longer have the
determination to see the job through are "simply wrong."
In an article for the Times newspaper, he said that the UK government would continue to stand "shoulder to shoulder" with Iraqis until democracy was entrenched.
"Any withdrawal of forces will be based on local conditions, not some immutable timetable. This will mean a transition, a process, not a peremptory decision or a one-off event," the Defence Secretary said.
His denial that the UK was planning an early exit from Iraq comes as the frequency, sophistication and intensity of attacks by insurgents have grown in the past few months.
This week, veteran war correspondent Robert Fisk reported that July was the bloodiest month in Baghdad's modern history, after uncovering that 1,100 civilian bodies were brought to the city's mortuary. Most were said to have been executed.
Reid admitted that that "things were hard" in Iraq. "Nobody, least of all me, would pretend that the situation in Iraq is a rosy one," he said.
But he also insisted that much progress was being made in the country such as improvements in health, education and sanitation, while praising the "heroic" work of British soldiers in such "incredibly difficult circumstances."
The Defence Secretary rejected press claims that Iraq was "falling apart," saying journalists too often concentrated on violence and terror, which inadvertently played into the hands of insurgents.
HC/2329/1414
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