statism watch

Nicholas Watt, The Guardian
December 17, 2008

Britain’s six-year occupation of southern Iraq will end by the summer, Gordon Brown announced today on a surprise visit to Baghdad.

A joint statement by the prime minister and his Iraqi counterpart, Nuri al-Maliki, said: “The role played by the UK combat forces is drawing to a close. These forces will have completed their task in the first half of 2009 and will then leave Iraq.”

Amid tight security – days after an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at George Bush – the prime minister arrived by military aircraft to give his personal backing to the agreement, which will see the bulk of the 4,100 British troops leave the country by June, with all military operations ending on 31 May.

Brown is expected to make a statement to the Commons tomorrow in which he will indicate that British troops will start to withdraw from Basra airport, their last main base in Iraq, in March.

Around 300 troops will remain to help with the training of Iraqi forces. Under an agreement signed with the Iraqi government, all but a few hundred British troops must leave the country by 31 July, six years and three months after the 2003 invasion.

The withdrawal, which will be set in motion next month when Basra airport is formally handed to the Iraqi authorities, can take place because a series of tasks set by Britain in the summer are near completion. They are:

• Increasing the training of the Iraqi police and military forces so they can assume control of security. Britain has trained 20,000 Iraqi troops from the 10th and 14th combat divisions and 22,000 police officers.

• Stepping up political progress so that provincial elections are held in Iraq by no later than early next year. These will now be held on 31 January.

• Intensifying reconstruction to build on the growing strength of the Iraqi economy. It is forecast to grow by 9.8% this year, with inflation down to 6% after a high of 46% last year.

• Create the conditions for the Iraqis to resume control of Basra airport so that it can return to full civilian use. The Iraqi authorities will take control of the airport next month, although the Americans will retain a major military presence there to protect supply lines to Kuwait after the withdrawal of British troops.

Brown told reporters at a joint press conference with Maliki: “These tasks are now in the process of being completed. When they have been completed the mission will end. We have agreed that the mission will end next year. Having completed the four tasks we will end our mission on 31 May and our troops will be coming home in the next two months [afterwards].”

Brown paid tribute to the 136 British service personnel who have died in Iraq and more than 100,000 members of the armed forces who have been involved in Iraq since the invasion “one way or the other”.

He said: “It is important to remember we have been engaged in the most difficult and challenging of work: the tasks of overthrowing a dictatorship, the task of building a democracy for the future and defending it against terrorism. We have made a huge contribution and of course given people an economic stake in the future of Iraq. We leave Iraq a better place.”

Later Brown took a helicopter journey to Umm Qasr, a southern port which members of the navy and marines have been trying to secure. Most Iraqi oil is shipped through there. He then went on to Basra to meet British troops.

There was one bomb attack on British troops in the Basra area last month, compared with 10 in November last year.

The prime minister had a meeting with Maliki, who stood next to Bush on Sunday when an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at the US president. At today’s subdued press conference, there was a beefed-up security presence, with the Iraqis anxious to avoid a repeat of the Bush incident.

Brown and Maliki are legally required to give their personal backing to the agreement on the withdrawal of troops because the UN mandate expires on 31 December.

There is some sensitivity in British circles amid reports that Britain has been forced to conclude its agreement with Iraq on the withdrawal of British troops with five smaller countries, including Romania, El Salvador and Estonia. Bush set the seal on the US’s own bilateral agreement with Iraq on Sunday. British sources said that Simon Macdonald, the prime minister’s principal foreign affairs adviser, had negotiated an Anglo-Iraq agreement during frequent visits to Iraq. But they conceded that the five other countries had been added to the British agreement. “The Iraqis have tacked five other countries on to our agreement,” one source said.

The prime minister’s visit to Iraq is the latest leg in a hectic round of shuttle diplomacy that saw him visit Afghanistan, India and Pakistan over the weekend. Brown wants to show his support for British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in the run-up to Christmas and to use his visits to stamp Britain’s mark on the changing political landscape in the two conflicts ahead of the inauguration of Barack Obama as US president next month.

Amid signs that Obama will request a greater commitment from Britain and other allies in Afghanistan, Brown told MPs on Monday that he would increase the British deployment there from just over 8,000 to around 8,300. Obama, who has said he will pull US forces out of Iraq within 16 months of taking office, wants to focus US attention on Afghanistan.

The trip today is Brown’s first to Iraq since he visited Baghdad and Basra in July. The announcement of a British withdrawal will increase pressure on Brown to accept Obama’s call for greater involvement in Afghanistan. The Americans are planning a “surge” that will see an extra 20,000 US troops sent to Afghanistan next year.

Britain is making clear that it cannot simply switch forces from one theatre to another. Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the chief of the defence staff, said last month that British troops could not be transferred “one for one” from Iraq to Afghanistan. “It is crucial that we reduce the operational tempo for our armed forces,” Stirrup said.

Brown made clear on Monday that he expects Britain’s European Nato allies to play a greater role in Afghanistan. Many countries, such as Germany, have imposed “national caveats” on their troops that restrict their movements. “Security depends on proper burden sharing,” the prime minister told MPs.

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