11 May 2007
Tony Blair held talks with Iraq’s President today, pledging once again his support for the country and its desire for “peace and harmony”.
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Prime Minister:
Good Morning everyone. Can I give a very warm welcome indeed to President Talabani, the President of Iraq. It is my great honour to welcome him here again to Downing Street, to thank him for the quite extraordinary courage and leadership that he has shown in Iraq in these past years, and to say that we remain fully in support of his desire to see an Iraq in which people from all the different communities can live in peace and harmony together and where the fate of the country is decided not by dictators or terrorists, but by the process of democracy.
And as we were just saying, there are, along with obviously all the immense challenges and difficulties, particularly with the terrorism at the moment in Iraq, there are actually tremendous opportunities for the country as well and we want to do whatever we can to support you Mr President and to support your people in making sure that we deliver what I know the vast majority of Iraqis want to see, which is a free and democratic and prosperous Iraq. And many thanks once again for doing me the honour of coming here and visiting me.
Mr Talabani:
Good Morning everyone. It was my own pleasure to meet you Mr Prime Minister. I would like to tell everyone that we in Iraq are looking to you as one of the heroes of liberating 27 million Iraqis from the worst kind of dictatorship, that the Iraqi people were suffering too much. The dictatorship was not only a threat on the Iraqi people but on the Middle East, on the peace in the Middle East and all countries. So this big historical achievement, of course it has its costs, but I am sure that the history will show the realities of the importance of liberating Iraq, not only for the Iraqi people only but for the Middle East and for Europe also.
As you know, terrorism is one of the main enemies of all countries of the world and now not only Iraqi people are facing terrorism, but all Arab countries from Morocco to Saudi Arabia they are targets from time to time from these terrorist activities.
We came here to first of all thank the Prime Minister, our dear friend Mr Tony Blair for what you have done and to invite him to come to see other parts of Iraq … parts of Iraq to see the achievements of the work that we have now in many areas like Kurdistan, like the south of Iraq, the middle of Iraq, which is now calm, quiet and people are going back to their normal life, not only that in the troubled areas we have in Iraq but we have all these security areas and I think it is … to come to see … you will see that there are successes, there are not only failures in some places but successes in other places of Iraq.
We in Iraq now are planning for real national reconciliation. I briefed His Excellency the Prime Minister about our last steps for reconciliation in Iraq and we hope that this will lead to the real national reconciliation, national unity among Iraqis, then it will be a big step forward to get all Iraqis who are now against the regime to come to this side of the political process, then isolate the al Queda criminals who are launching more … against the Iraqi people and eradicate them, as now Iraqi people in some places, especially in … and … people started to fight against them and liberate their areas from their terrorist activities.
Again I thank you Mr Prime Minister for receiving us, giving the honour of meeting you in these days and I was very much impressed with your speech yesterday. I think this is the speech of a great man, a great leader of these great people.
Prime Minister:
Thank you, thank you Mr President.
Question:
President Talabani, you are no doubt aware there has been a degree of criticism of Britain’s involvement, Britain’s continued involvement in Iraq, almost to the point where it threatens to eclipse the Prime Minister’s domestic legacy. How do you feel the British public should view the decisions taken by the Prime Minister as regards Iraq? And to the Prime Minister, you admitted yesterday that you had made some mistakes during your time in office; did any of them involve Iraq?
Mr Talabani:
I think that we need to give real picture of the developments in Iraq to the public opinion of this country, we need the help of the media to come to reflect the realities of all parts of Iraq, or north, of south, of other parts liberated and to show the public opinion here what kind of historical achievements have been done there. Of course it is something normal that when British boys and girls are killed in Iraq we are very sorry for this, but also people here will feel that what the Iraqis are doing, they need to show them some tangible achievements, which we are now doing. I hope in the coming weeks and months we will be able to show the public opinion of Great Britain that we are in a new era, in the right direction and we are now getting the results of what you have done with other coalition forces for the Iraqi people and for the peace and security in the Middle East.
Prime Minister:
You know I have gone back over several times things that after the fall of Saddam could have been done differently, but I don’t think it alters the basic point of what is happening in Iraq today. And first of all it is clear that those who are trying, by car bombs and terrorism, to destroy the possibility of progress in Iraq are doing so without the consent of the Iraqi people, without the support of the Iraqi people, indeed they are external forces coming into the country in order to prevent the country having what it wants. And the second point therefore is that in those circumstances, and particularly as the President has just been saying where you have got a situation where there are real signs of progress as well because there are parts of Iraq that are secure and making progress. Our task and our job, not just Britain, and America and the other countries that have forces there, but our task as an international community is to help the will of the country of Iraq be done, and that will is to have a democracy. And I think, as we were just saying, a lot of the media coverage in the west focuses on the terrorism, which of course the terrorists know and they realise that nothing makes a greater impact than the carnage that they visit upon totally innocent people, totally innocent Muslim people, but our response has got to be that when they do that in order to weaken our will, our response has got to be to keep our will strong and to redouble our efforts. And you know people can debate over the years what may have happened differently, but you know you only have to talk to someone like President Talabani to realise what Iraq was like under Saddam and his sons and realise how important it is that it is able to have a different future. And if these terrorists try to stop them having that future, our job is to be with him and to fight the terrorism.
Question:
One question in Arabic and one in English. (Interpretation inaudible.) Prime Minister, I just said how do the Iraqis feel after one of the two main allies that made a dream come true - the removal of Saddam - for the Iraqis, how do they feel with losing one ally. And for yourself you have made promises over the years, over the past ten years I have heard you say many times that you are going to move the Middle East peace process forward, do you consider that your failure to do so and the deterioration of the situation at the moment there is due to the lack of support you have had from America, from the United States administration, or is it also that you personally failed to move the process forward?
Mr Talibani:
(Interpretation inaudible.)
Prime Minister:
I still think that progress between Israel and Palestine is the big challenge that we face out in the Middle East. I still think it is possible to make the progress and I will still do everything I can to ensure that that progress is made. And it is not that there is any lack of will in the international community now, as the recent Quartet meetings have shown, for progress to be made but we need to find the right political framework within which the desire I think both of Israelis and Palestinians can be realised. And once again what you have there, and it is important I think particularly for the Arab and the Muslim world to understand this, what you have again in respect of Israel and Palestine are elements that want to disrupt and impede any possible progress and we have got to find a political framework that overcomes those attempts to frustrate what again is the basic will of the people. And I wouldn’t ignore the one big step forward that there has been in the past few years which is now the acceptance by the entirety of the international community that the only just solution is a state of Israel and an independent viable Palestinian state. Now a few years back when I first became Prime Minister that was not a consensus, it is a consensus today. What we need however is to find a political framework and then the energy and determination to take it forward, and I will continue to do all I can in that regard.
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