U.K.'s Beckett: Failed Iraq Would Threaten World Security Like Taliban-Ruled Afghanistan
By STEPHEN GRAHAM
The Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A failed Iraq would pose as great a risk to international security as Afghanistan when it was controlled by the Taliban and provided a secure base for al-Qaida, Britain's foreign secretary warned Tuesday.
In a speech during a visit to Pakistan, Margaret Beckett acknowledged the difficulty of ending the violence and destruction raging in Iraq, while insisting that international efforts to stabilize the country would continue.
"The consequences of a failure in Iraq now are every bit as stark as the failure in Afghanistan in the last decade," Beckett told an audience of reporters and diplomats at an event organized by Pakistan's Foreign Service Academy in Islamabad.
Beckett said Iraq is "a country that risks becoming an ungoverned and lawless state in the heart of the most volatile region in the world the Middle East."
Britain plans to cut its military force in Iraq from 7,100 troops to about 5,500 in the coming months. Yet it is sending an additional 1,400 troops to southern Afghanistan, swelling the British contribution to the NATO-commanded force there to 7,700 troops.
Beckett said countries with soldiers in Iraq were still determined to help the beleaguered Iraqi government improve security in the country so that the state and economy can be rebuilt.
"I make no bones about how difficult that task is or how acutely the fate of that country still hangs in the balance," Beckett said.
Beckett and visiting U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney held separate talks on Monday with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on strengthening the fight against Taliban and al-Qaida militants, who are expected to resume fierce fighting in Afghanistan this spring.
Musharraf's office said Cheney expressed concern that al-Qaida may be "regrouping" in Pakistan's tribal areas.
Beckett said she had "heard these allegations."
"I think, if it were true, it would be a matter of considerable concern," Beckett said. "I hear that the government of Pakistan suggests that they do not believe it to be true. I think the evidence is something that we would all want to assess."