- LONDON (AFP) -- British troops
will have to remain in Iraq for "at least two years and perhaps more"
because of the instability revealed by the bloody attacks in Karbala and
Baghdad, British representative Jeremy Greenstock said.
-
- "This is a crunch period for the future of Iraq.
Iraqi society has got to realise that they have got to unite against (violence),"
he told BBC radio's Today program.
-
- Greenstock, who is responsible for civil administration
in southern Iraq, said those who wished to destroy attempts to build a
new Iraq planned "to intensify violence in the months leading up to
the handover of authority".
-
- He said the attacks Tuesday were part of "the last
desperate struggle" of violent people to obstruct the process of nation
building. The violence, therefore, "was expected and is very difficult
to stop".
-
- Greenstock said British troops would remain after the
handover of sovereignty to an Iraqi interim administration in June.
-
- "We will stay here after June," he said. "We
are not going to leave."
-
- Asked how long troops would remain, he replied, "My
prediction is at least another two years, maybe more than that. They will
come down in numbers as the Iraqi capacity grows. There will be a correlation
between those things."
-
- "As in the Balkans," Greenstock added. "We
will need to be around for longer than we originally planned. I think Britons
and Americans need to realise that. We have got a job to do and we are
going to finish it."
-
- Greenstock warned that the security situation "is
going to be nasty and we always predicted that. There will be further bad
days before we are through with this, but the determination of both the
coalition and the peaceful majority in Iraqi society has been quite impressive
so far, and I am counting on that."
-
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