Embargo: Immediate, 21th April 2004
In response to Charles Kennedy, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, at today's Prime Minister's questions the Prime Minister said that he had no plans to increase the number of UK troops in Basra in the wake of today's bombings. The United States have announced the deployment of an extra 20,000 troops to deal with the deteriorating security situation in Iraq.
The Prime Minister was unable to give any clarification, with regard to the legal status of British troops in Iraq, after the handover on June 30th to an Iraqi provisional Government. Mr. Kennedy asked what the formal relationship would be between UK troops and the Iraqi Government, and between UK troops and the US commanders.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Full text of PMQ exchange follows
Rt. Hon. Charles Kennedy MP
Mr Speaker, could I associate myself and my colleagues entirely with the expressions of condolences that the Prime Minister has so properly laid where the scores of Iraqi civilians as well have lost their lives as a result of this latest outrage. And of course the British troops, several of whom as reports from the MOD confirm, have been very seriously injured indeed. This is a timely reminder for us all of the escalating nature of the violence throughout Iraq now as we build towards the June 30th deadline. That being the case, given the United States confirmed last week it is to deploy a further 20,000 of its own forces into Iraq, is the Prime Minister satisfied, as things stand in Basra, that there are sufficient levels of British troops to manage the situation. Has he had requests for more? And does he have any plans at the moment to deploy more British troops or equipment to the area?
Prime Minister
We are satisfied that we have sufficient troops in Basra. We don't have plans to increase the number. Of course we always have to keep that situation under review. But at the present time the British troops are managing extremely well down there. I think what is happening, as the attacks today indicate, is that the terrorists are becoming sufficiently desperate that they are now prepared to attack literally the most defenceless people they can find, simply in order to create maximum chaos. The feedback we are getting from ordinary Iraqi people in Basra, as one might expect, is intense anger towards these people who are killing .
Rt. Hon. Charles Kennedy MP
Mr Speaker, I thank the Prime Minister for that clarification on the British troops. Can I ask him a further question concerning their status? After the June 30th handover what will be the formal relationship between the British troops and the new Iraqi authority and what equally will be the formal status between British troops and the American powers within Iraq? What will be the legal status? And is that something that is liable to be addressed or spelt out in any further United Nations Security Council resolutions?
Prime Minister
It may well be. There are two separate issues here. The first is that the new security agreement that we want to draw up with the incoming Iraqi Government and that is something are talking about and negotiating with people now. The second thing is what will exactly be the hierarchy or chain of command. And that again is something we are obviously discussing. It's going to be important to make sure that in whatever discussions we have that British troops are properly protected. In other words we will have to be careful in doing everything we can to sustain and hold the new Iraqi government, that the position of British troops and the orders that should be given to them is very clear. But those are questions that we will have to help the new Iraqi administration with. Our view at the moment is that in all likelihood a new United Nations Security Council resolution will allow us to give us both the political and the security aspects to this, and I hope on a reasonably consensual basis. I welcome what Japan and South Korea have just announced in terms of their troops. It's very important to realise we've now got over 40 coalition countries in Iraq and I think there is, I believe, a huge amount of goodwill in the international community, irrespective of what people thought about the war, to try and help the people of Iraq on their way to develop a state the majority of them want.
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