Sepcial Report: Tension accelerates in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Sept. 5 (Xinhua)
-- Visiting British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said on Tuesday that
Britain was determined to hand over security responsibility to Iraqis.
"It is absolutely key that responsibility be transferred to the elected
government of Iraq," Beckett told reporters after a meeting with Iraqi Deputy
Prime Minister Barham Salih.
"There has been responsibility that has been transferred already and we
hope and believe that that is a process that will continue," she said.
For his part, Salih said that by the end of this year, security control of
nearly nine of the 18 provinces will be handed over to Iraqis, and command of
Iraqi armed forces will be handed over to Iraqis this week.
Beckett arrived here Monday night on an official visit to Iraq, the first
since she took up the post in May.
In July, British forces handed over control of Iraq's southern Muthanna
province to Iraqi security forces, while Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
said last month that another southern province, Dhi Qar, would follow suit in
September. Enditem
