UK distances itself from expected US military boost in Iraq
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Jan 9, IRNA
UK-Troops-Iraq
The British government is distancing itself from US President George W Bush's announcement on Wednesday on a new strategy in which he is expected to order an extra 20,000 troops to be deployed in Iraq.
"People should not confuse the situation in Baghdad with the situation in Basra as they were two separate situations on the ground," Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said.
"What the Americans would announce about Baghdad would be in relation to the situation on the ground there, and what we decided to do in Basra would be to do with Basra," the spokesman was quoted as saying at a daily briefing.
After meeting Bush on Monday, Republican Senator Gordon Smith said "it was clear to me a decision has been made for 20,000 additional troops" to be sent to join the some 140,000 US servicemen already deployed in Iraq.
The US plan contrasts with Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett's announcement in November that Britain was seeking to disengage its troops from Basra by May.
But doubts about the ability of British troops to transfer security to Iraqi auithority has since been raised by the leaking of a report from the Foreign Office's Political Director John Sawers, who suggested the timetable had slipped beyond the end of 2007/beginning of 2008.
Asked whether the British government would be making any statement after Bush's speech, Blair's spokesman said that "the US would decide what they would decide and would announce accordingly."
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