17 December 2006
The Prime Minister has held a joint press conference in Baghdad with his Iraqi counterpart Nouri Maliki following talks in Baghdad.
Mr Blair said that the UK stands "four-square" behind Iraq in its battle to defeat terrorists and support democracy.
Read the transcript:
Mr Talabani:
(Interpretation inaudible)
Prime Minister:
Thank you Mr President, and it is a very great pleasure to see you again and to be with you, particularly with my colleague Ann Clwyd who as you know, as you have just referred to, has supported Iraq and the Iraqi people over many years and through many struggles.
We had an opportunity now to talk about the challenges that there are, which are obviously very great, but then so is the determination of you and your colleagues to overcome those challenges. And as I said to you before, I will remain, and my country will remain, doing everything we possibly can for you and the Iraqi people in your struggle to obtain the democracy that you should have and that you want.
Question:
Inaudible.
Prime Minister:
Well I think the strategy evolved as the nature of the struggle and the threat evolved, and so this is now an attempt to try and prevent the proper government of Iraq working and try to foment hatred and sectarianism. And therefore our strategy has got to be: one, political for reconciliation between all people in Iraq and show everybody that they have a place in the new Iraq; and secondly, to build up the capability of the Iraqi army and police. And I had the opportunity just a few moments ago to speak to not just the politicians, but to the people in charge of the Iraqi army who are building up their capability all the time. And what we need is, as one of the people put it, we now need to translate the decisions into action, and if that happened then despite the attempts from the sectarian groups to destroy democracy, I believe democracy will prevail.
Question:
Mr President, you have in the past been very critical of the … how concerned are you that for all the … support given by the British Prime Minister and also by the American President, that at some stage British and American forces will be withdrawn from this country, perhaps a little earlier than you and your government may like?
Mr Talabani:
Well let me repeat that we are grateful to both His Excellency Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush for what they have done for the Iraqi people. We consider them the hero of the liberation of 7 million Iraqis from the worst kind of dictatorship. Of course we are trying to depend on our forces, we are very well aware that the British Army and the American Army will not remain forever … and we hope that as soon as possible we can mobilise, organise our forces and then those friends will be of course able to leave our country, we will say to them dear friends, goodbye, we are grateful to you, but we are not (inaudible)…trying to both on the political level to achieve … and uniting democratic and moderate forces on one side, and on the other side to train army and police forces to be able to replace the forces who came to liberate us.
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