Beckett unveils timetable for British troop withdrawal

The British-patrolled Maysan province will be the next area of Iraq to be handed over to local security forces, the Iraqi Foreign Minister said today.

Hoshyar Zebari, who is in London for talks with Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, said that the handover of control in Maysan would allow Britain’s troops there to be redeployed elsewhere in the south.

The UK has 800 personnel in Maysan, one of the four provinces that it currently patrols. More than 20 British soldiers have died in ambushes and roadside bombings around al-Amarah, the Maysan capital.

Today Mrs Beckett said that the process of transferring control from the multinational forces to Iraqi authorities in more of the country’s 18 provinces could be expected to take up to 18 months. The remaining two provinces patrolled by Britain are Dhiqar and Basra.

Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, announced yesterday that Britain would hand over responsibility for patrolling neighbouring Muthana province to local authorities within a month, in the first region to undergo the “Iraqi-isation” of security since the fall of Saddam.

At a press conference in the Foreign Office, Mr Zebari said: “Yesterday, Prime Minister Maliki announced that the process of transferring security responsibilities from the coalition forces to Iraqi forces had started.

“Muthana province will be the first province to take advantage of that and this will be completed very soon. The next province that will follow, according to my discussions with Baghdad, would be Maysan.

“This will definitely allow the British forces there to be redeployed. We have our own plans to accelerate this process further. By the end of the year we hope that the Iraqi forces will be able to take more and more control over the security situation.”

Mrs Beckett hailed the handover of Muthana as “an important milestone”, reflecting the growing capabilities of Iraq’s armed forces and police. “We will see more provinces handed over as they meet the necessary security conditions over the next 12-18 months.”

Mrs Beckett said that any handover of control to Iraqi forces would offer the Ministry of Defence “a greater degree of flexibility and room for manoeuvre” in its deployments in Iraq.

Mr Zebari added: “Part of our understanding with British military forces and other coalition forces working in Iraq, and in southern Iraq particularly, is the need for any redeployment not to leave behind any security vacuum and unless the readiness of Iraqi forces would be established, we would have not recommended any premature withdrawal.

“But we are confident that we will be able to fill the vacuum in Muthanna and in other provinces.”

Michael Evans, Defence Editor of The Times, said that the 800 British troops in Maysan would not be brought home, but kept in reserve to cover emergencies in the Iraqi south.

“They will all complete their six months’ tour of duty, although once that’s over and they get rotated with the next lot there is scope for the Government to decide they need fewer troops in Iraq,” he said.

“But I am sure they will keep them as a reserve force to start with. With the Italians pulling out, there will be a need for a force to act as a rapid response and go where they are needed.”

Italy has 2,700 troops in Iraq, mostly in Nasiriyah, but 1,100 are due to begin to withdraw this month.

Mrs Beckett said that the UK backed an Iraqi proposal for an international compact to help to reconstruct the shattered country.

Baghdad hopes that the compact will be backed by international bodies such as the UN, World Bank and IMF, the five permanent Security Council members Britain, France, Russia, China and the US, as well as major donor countries from the Arab world and elsewhere.

Mr Zebari said that a security plan for Basra agreed with Des Browne, the Defence Secretary who visited Baghdad yesterday, involved a clear commitment from the Iraqi Government to deploy more troops in the city. He said the Government was “confident” that its forces were ready to start taking control of greater parts of the country.

Junichiro Koizumi, Japan’s Prime Minister, today announced the withdrawal of his country’s 600 ground troops from southern Iraq, saying they had accomplished their humanitarian mission. He offered no timetable for the withdrawal, but it was reported that a withdrawal order had immediately been issued.

Mrs Beckett thanked the Japanese for their contribution to the reconstruction effort.

Copyright 2006 Times Newspapers Ltd.