STATEMENT BY JACK STRAW
UK FOREIGN SECRETARY

UK FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE

April 28, 2003

With permission Mr Speaker, I should like to make a statement on Iraq and on the Middle East Peace Process.

SECURITY AND RECONSTRUCTION IN IRAQ

First, let me start with the security situation in Iraq. Large-scale combat operations are over. The overwhelming majority of the country is under coalition control. The vast bulk of Saddam Hussein's forces have been defeated, dispersed or isolated, although minor pockets of resistance remain in Baghdad and some other towns.

When the House rose for the Easter recess, the main challenge confronting coalition forces was civil disorder and looting in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the regime. It would have been a miracle had there not been such an outburst of anger, frustration and lawlessness in a country where the population had lived for so long in daily fear of torture, arbitrary arrest and summary execution.

Over the past two weeks the looting and civil disorder has declined. In Baghdad, local police have offered their services and joint patrols with coalition troops are under way. An effective curfew is in place. Baghdad's main hospitals are working, and the UN Office of the Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Iraq reports that clean water is available to most parts of the city.

More widely, schools and markets are reopening. Local hospitals are resuming normal service, and field hospitals, including those supplied by Jordan and Saudi Arabia, are functioning well. Electricity and water supplies are reaching most parts of the country. Again the UN Office of the Humanitarian Co-ordinator has said that it is about to declare the whole area to the south of Baghdad, quotes, 'permissive'.

In Basra - the centre of the area under British military control - UK forces are carrying out joint operations with local police, and providing food and water through aid distribution points established on the outskirts of the city. A local judicial system is being established with our assistance and encouragement. Thanks to help from British engineers and local Red Cross workers, the three main power stations supplying Basra are now up and running, and the city's electricity and water supplies have been restored to pre-conflict levels. In certain respects in the south, facilities are already in better shape than they were before military action commenced. The seaway into Um Qasr is being dredged to take larger vessels, and the grain store is open. The railway line from the town to Basra, which had not been working for many years, is now running thanks to British military engineers, and plans are in hand to re-open the line all the way to Baghdad.

In northern Iraq, essential supplies of wheat, oil and medical goods are being delivered unhindered. UNICEF reports that all schools in the north have reopened, and that the vast majority of people displaced by the conflict have now returned to their homes.

Mr Speaker,

In the coming weeks, coalition forces will increasingly share the burden for the delivery of essential services and aid with the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA), and with UN agencies and NGOs. Just before Easter when I visited Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia just before Easter I discussed ORHA's plans with its head, Jay Garner, and colleagues based in Kuwait. Mr Garner moved into Iraq just a week ago. A number of countries aside from the UK and the US are making substantial contributions to ORHA. Australia, Denmark and Japan have already provided personnel. Others including Spain, Romania, South Korea and Italy are about to do so. For our part, we have so far provided twenty British staff, including one of Mr Garner's three deputies, Major General Tim Cross, a serving officer with the British Army. We will be making further contributions to ORHA to help get Iraq back on its feet.

Mr Speaker,

As well as meeting humanitarian and other essential needs, and starting the process of physical reconstruction, a key objective of the coalition is to support a viable political process, which allows the Iraqi people to create representative, democratic government for themselves. In the Basra and southeastern sector, which we control, we began this process at a local level by sponsoring representative town meetings. Similar local and regional level meetings based on this model initiated by the British military have been held elsewhere.

On 15 April, the first meeting of national Iraqi representatives was held in Al Nassiriyah with 60 delegates. This was attended by a senior British diplomat, Edward Chaplin. A second such meeting - on a larger scale - is being held today in Baghdad. My Honourable Friend the Member for Warwickshire North, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and a senior FCO official are attending. We will of course ensure that the House is informed of the outcome of the meeting.

Mr Speaker,

We hope that the current process of consultations will culminate in a national conference of Iraqi representatives. This would, firstly, set up an Iraqi Interim Authority to take over progressively responsibility for the administration of Iraq. Secondly, it would create a constitutional framework to prepare the ground for the election of a democratic government run by the Iraqi people themselves.

Mr Speaker,

As President Bush and my RHF the Prime Minister have made clear, the United Nations will have a vital role in Iraq's reconstruction. Last week the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1476 which will extend the new arrangements for the UN's Oil for Food programme until 3 June.

In the coming weeks, the Security Council will have to consider a range of other issues. This will include the future of the sanctions regime and the subsequent management of Iraq's oil revenues.

There is also the question of the future arrangements for verifying Iraq's disarmament of weapons of mass destruction. In his presentation to the Security Council last week, the Head of UNMOVIC, Dr Hans Blix, recognised, and I quote, 'in a situation that is still insecure …civilian international inspection can hardly operate,' and he said, 'some of the premises upon which the Council established UNMOVIC and gave it far-reaching powers… have changed.' Dr Blix also accepted that coalition authorities would be as eager as UNMOVIC to find weapons of mass destruction.

In the absence of the secure environment referred to by Dr Blix, the task of locating this material inevitably falls to coalition forces. We are actively pursuing sites, documentation and individuals connected with Iraq's programmes. Both the UK and the US have deployed specialist personnel and will be sending more in the near future.

But these investigations are unlikely to be quick. The inspection process itself will be painstaking and detailed. The testimony from scientists and documentation about WMD development and production programmes will be the key to determining the fate of prohibited equipment, materials and munitions. But we cannot expect witnesses to come forward until they are fully confident they can speak freely.

Even so, Mr Speaker, I know that some members of this House have expressed concerns about the justification for military action in the absence of discoveries of illegal Iraqi weapons. Let me make two observations in this connection. First, military action was taken on the basis set out in SCR 1441, namely that Iraq's 'non-compliance with Council resolutions and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles' posed a threat 'to international peace and security.' The evidence against Iraq then was - and remains - overwhelming. It was charted by UNMOVIC in damning detail in the 173 pages of their report on 'Unresolved Disarmament Issues: Iraq's Proscribed Weapons Programmes' which was published in New York late on 7 March and which I published in theis House the following Monday, 10 March. My second point is that Saddam had ample time to conceal his WMD programmes prior to the start of military operations. Indeed his experience in concealment dates back to the early 1990s.

Mr Speaker,

Before I move on to the Middle East Peace Process, let me say this. It is only 19 days since Baghdad was liberated and barely two weeks since the end of serious fighting. In that time civil disorder has subsided and - as we saw in the joyous Shia pilgrimage to Karbala last week - the Iraqi people have begun to savour the taste of freedom. Of course there are some problems associated with this dramatic change for the Iraqi people after more than 20 years of coping with a brutal and vicious regime. But a new and representative Iraqi Government, run by the Iraqi people and for the Iraqi people, will help guarantee this freedom for future generations. And for all the immense challenges which lie ahead, one thing I know for certain. Iraq's future will be better than its past.

A ROADMAP TO PEACE FOR THE MIDDLE EAST

Mr Speaker,

Of course the Middle East will never look forward to a secure future as long as a settlement to the region's most intractable dispute remains beyond reach. For the past months, the Government has worked tirelessly to secure the publication and implementation of the Roadmap - a document agreed by the Quartet Group of the United States, Russia, the UN and the European Union, which sets out a path to a peaceful settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I greatly welcome the commitment from President Bush to devote as much effort to this cause as my RHF the Prime Minister has given to the search for peace in Northern Ireland.

Later this week the Palestinian Legislative Council will be asked to endorse the appointment of a new Cabinet for the Palestinian Authority. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, one of the main architects of the Oslo Accords, this Cabinet has, I believe, the courage and ability to take the tough measures necessary to clamp down on terrorism and to lead the Palestinians into a constructive dialogue with the Israelis and with the international community. This, and action by the Israeli Government to ensure that the Israeli Defence Force acts strictly within international law, should bring an end to the spiral of killings which has claimed over 3,000 lives on both sides over the past two and a half years.

Once the Palestinian Legislative Council endorses the Cabinet, the Roadmap will be published. For the first time for a long time we should then be able to speak of a peace process in which the parties themselves are actively engaged. The Roadmap charts a course to the outcome which this House and the entire world wants to see - a secure state of Israel and a viable Palestinian state, consistent with UN Security Council resolutions and the principle of land for peace. We will maintain our very close dialogue with the United States to push this process forward and we will do all we can with them and our European partners to help with implementation of the Roadmap.

With visionary leadership and courageous statesmanship from both sides, the outcome I have described for Israel and Palestine can, in our judgement, be achieved in the timescale set out in the Roadmap of 2005. If this happens it would not just bring an end to the misery of millions of Israelis and Palestinians who live every day under the shadow of indiscriminate violence. It would remove the single greatest source of resentment and mistrust which bedevils relations between the West and the Muslim world. And I know and believe all sides of the House will support the Government's efforts to secure this great prize.