By IRNA
London : Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells has denied that the recent withdrawal from Basra city by British troops signals the end of the UK’s role in Iraq.
“One of the most notable misconceptions about British foreign policy over recent months is that with a change in government, our long-standing commitment to support the Iraqi people has gone out of the window,” Howells said.
“I have seen a lot of reporting on the British departure from Basra Palace working on the presumption that this was the end of the road for the British in Iraq. This is not true,” he said in an opinion editorial released by the Foreign Office Wednesday.
The minister also denied that there was any difference with Washington over the reduction of British troops, while elsewhere the US had intensified their level of military engagement in Iraq.
He said that yet “another myth is that these long-declared British plans have come as a surprise to our US counterparts.”
“Since the 2003 invasion, we have discussed such plans on a continual basis with both Iraqis and our coalition counterparts,” he said.
“The simple answer is that Basra is not Baghdad. Basra has largely been unscathed by the appalling violence between Sunnis and Shi’is,” Howells said. “Neither is there a meaningful presence from Al-Qa’idah or Ba’thists,” he added.
In the editorial, originally written for the London-based Arabic newspaper, al-Hayat, he said that the majority of violence in the southern provinces controlled by the UK “can be attributable to militias and criminal groups, jostling for position.”
“Knowing that the British presence is finite and seeking to establish their nationalist credentials, as well as fighting each other, most of these groups’ fire power has actually been increasingly directed at British troops in recent months,” he said.
The Foreign Office Minister said that rather than the Iraqi authorities being perpetually reliant on foreign forces to tackle this scourge, Britain’s approach has been to “train Iraqis, who best understand the dynamics of their own localities.”
He accepted that there were “still huge challenges ahead and in distinct parts of the country the violence is very much continuing,” but insisted that significant areas were enjoying “growing stability and development.”
“It has never been more important that we reiterate Britain’s commitment to stand alongside the Iraqis in their aspiration for a brighter and better future.