- Euro-MP questions why Government judges Iraq safe enough for enforced return of Iraqi asylum seekers, but refuses to bring troops home

The so-called ‘War on Terror’ has been a spectacular failure, resulting in deepening chaos in Iraq, increasingly dangerous rhetoric towards Iran, and the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, said a Green Euro-MP today.

Her comments come ahead of a mass Stop The War demonstration on Saturday 15 March, where hundreds of thousands of activists are expected to assemble at 12 noon in Trafalgar Square and march down Whitehall to surround Parliament.

Dr Caroline Lucas, Green Party MEP and Principal Speaker, said: “British foreign policy is all too frequently inconsistent, illegal and immoral. Saturday’s rally will highlight the disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan which have left the region mired in instability. These illegal conflicts are costing thousands of lives and exacerbating violence, while costing the taxpayer a vast sum of public money - £3.3bn to be spent on occupying Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008 alone.

“As leaked documents from the Home Office have shown today, the Government thinks Iraq is safe enough for the hundreds of Iraqi asylum seekers it wants to send back. Yet it refuses to withdraw our troops.”

On US foreign policy, Dr Lucas commented: “The US has demonstrated a clear interest, not in swift withdrawal and genuine peace-building, but in long-term occupation in order to guarantee access to oil and large contracts for private corporations. The UK is shamefully implicated in this corporate carve up which guarantees that money and aid is diverted from those who need it most.

“And our leaders still haven’t learned their lesson. On Iran, once again we have a build up of warmongering rhetoric, accompanied by unsubstantiated reports of the development of WMD, the threat of “preventive” military strikes, and the demonisation of a whole nation.

“What moral authority can this government possibly have to lecture Iran or anyone else about not developing nuclear weapons when it refuses to begin the process of disarmament itself?"

Dr Lucas, who is a member of the European Parliament’s Permanent Delegation to Palestine, continued:

"The recent Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip are an unacceptable act of collective punishment of the people of Gaza. Bush and Brown must put real pressure on Israel over this clear breach of international humanitarian law and the EU must suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement."

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The London WORLD AGAINST WAR demonstration - called by Stop the War, CND and the British Muslim Initiative - comes just as the government is about to announce that the cost of its war policies in Iraq and Afghanistan will soar in 2008 to £3.3 billion, double the cost in 2007.

The demonstration in London on 15 March is part of a global WORLD AGAINST WAR protest on the fifth anniversary of the first Iraq demonstration. For more information, visit  http://www.stopwar.org.uk/.