- BASRA -- Several thousand
British troops will remain in Iraq until at least 2006, Tony Blair said
yesterday during a surprise visit to forces stationed in the south of the
country.
-
- Stopping off on his way home from a New Year holiday
with his family on the Red Sea, the Prime Minister congratulated the 8,215
servicemen and women stationed in and around the port of Basra for their
"brilliant" and "noble" work.
-
- Mr Blair, whose future may still hinge on the Iraq issue
despite the capture of Saddam Hussein, said the whole of Britain had "enormous
pride" in what they had achieved.
-
- British officials said that in private talks with military
commanders in Basra the Prime Minister made clear that the challenge of
bringing security and democracy to Iraq meant that a substantial force
would have to be there for the long haul.
-
- The 10,000 British troops in Iraq would not be scaled
down this year, even after the passing of the July 1 deadline for handing
control of government to the Iraqi people.
-
- A gradual reduction would probably begin next year, although
substantial numbers would still be needed beyond that time as the Iraqis
tried to make self-government work and eradicate terrorism.
-
- Mr Blair, looking relaxed and tanned, hinted at the long-term
presence in a speech to 600 servicemen and women at the Shaiydah logistics
base, south of Basra.
-
- He told them they were "pioneers" of a new
form of soldiering that involved far more than winning wars.
-
- "There is the other part of 21st century soldiering,
which is that you haven't just to win the conflict; you have then got to
win the peace and that is difficult too."
-
- Mr Blair has been deeply embarrassed by the failure to
find weapons of mass destruction and he may be criticised this month by
Lord Hutton's report into the death of David Kelly over the way the Government
used intelligence to justify the war.
-
- But he insisted that the threat of WMD justified military
action.
-
- "The conflict here was a conflict of enormous importance
because Iraq was a test case," he told the troops.
-
- "Iraq was a country whose regime had a proven record
of the use of weapons of mass destruction - not just their development
- and a regime so abhorrent that literally hundreds of thousands of its
citizens died in prison camps and of torture and repression.
-
- "If we had backed away from that, we would never
have been able to confront this threat in the other countries where it
exists."
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- Mr Blair praised the troops for helping to achieve a
remarkable transformation from tyranny to a system of democratic control.
-
- "I have just met Iraqis - ordinary Iraqi people
who for decade upon decade knew nothing but the secret police, poverty,
utter dependence on the state, fear, inability to make any difference to
the country in which they lived - who today have some hope and some prospect
of a future, thanks to you."
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- A senior Government official said Mr Blair's commitment
answered those critics of the war who accused America and Britain of wanting
to "cut and run".
-
- In a warning of the problems ahead, Sir Jeremy Greenstock,
Britain's envoy in Iraq, said that the anti-American insurgency was growing.
-
- Four days after a 500lb car bomb killed eight people
at a Baghdad restaurant, he said: "The opposition is using bigger
bombs and more sophisticated controls. We will go on seeing bigger bangs."
-
- Sir Jeremy said he thought that 75 to 80 per cent of
the attacks were being carried out by Saddam loyalists and the rest by
foreign groups. Mr Blair's visit was planned in great secrecy.
-
- He flew to Basra in an RAF C17 transport aircraft, which
collected him from his holiday break in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el
Sheikh. During the visit he travelled in an Army Air Corps Chinook helicopter
guarded by rear and side machine gunners.
-
- He held talks with Paul Bremer, the American head of
the coalition provisional authority, and Sir Jeremy. He also visited southern
Iraq's new police academy, where more than 15,000 policemen are being trained
with the help of British officers.
-
- Mr Blair joined troops from 20 Brigade for lunch at their
headquarters in one of Saddam's former palaces overlooking the Shatt-al-Arab
waterway.
-
- Later, although not mentioning Iran and North Korea by
name, the Prime Minister repeated his belief that the issue of "rogue
repressive states developing weapons of mass destruction" remained
the major security threat of the 21st century.
-
- "If we do not deal with it, we will rue the day
we didn't."
-
- Asked whether he still believed that WMD would be found
in Iraq, he said: "I don't believe the intelligence we got was wrong.
We have got to wait and see what [the Iraq survey group's] report turns
up."
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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