THE war in Iraq hindered the fight against al-Qaeda, which still poses a substantial threat to British citizens through 17,000 soldiers around the world, an MPs’ report suggested yesterday.

Al-Qaeda remains the world’s best-funded terrorist group despite the war and the seizure of £74 million in assets, according to the report by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. No evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda has been found, the MPs concluded.

Their assessment contrasts sharply with President Bush’s assertion in a speech in May that al-Qaeda was on the run and the claim in February by Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, of a “sinister nexus between Iraq and the al-Qaeda terrorist network”.

The MPs called for a sustained effort to restore order in Afghanistan and Iraq because of fears that they would again become havens for terrorist groups. Their report also sets out damage done to almost every major international forum, from strained relations in Nato to serious questions over an EU common foreign policy.

Al-Qaeda

The MPs found no evidence linking al-Qaeda with Saddam but highlighted concerns at the way that Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, had exploited the war to encourage terrorism.

“We conclude that, in spite of some notable progress, al-Qaeda continues to pose a substantial threat to British citizens in the UK and abroad,” the report, Foreign Policy Aspects of the War Against Terrorism, stated.

“The war in Iraq might in fact have impeded the war against al-Qaeda. Our witnesses were concerned that it might have enhanced the appeal of al-Qaeda to Muslims living in the Gulf region and elsewhere.”

Paul Wilkinson, chairman of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St Andrews University, told MPs: “As a movement (al-Qaeda) has more actual trained militants with expertise that can be used in terrorist operations than any previous international terrorist movement that we have known. We are talking about 17,000, that is probably a conservative estimate, who have been through various training processes . . . and who can be mobilised in . . . between 50 and 60 countries.”

The MPs were also alarmed by a Foreign Office memo to them in April saying that it was “clear that al-Qaeda is trying to exploit events in Iraq for its own purposes . . . in the short term, al-Qaeda’s stance on Iraq may encourage some misguided individuals or small groups to try to commit terrorist acts.”

In the longer term the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was confident that benefits to al-Qaeda would be undermined by ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and by advances towards peace in the Middle East.

The MPs welcomed the capture of several leading al-Qaeda members but gave warning that the group had an alarming capacity to regenerate itself.

Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East

No compelling evidence of WMD were found before the war by the International Atomic Energy Authority or the UN inspection teams, the MPs said, a point disputed by the Foreign Office.

Professor Wilkinson said that, from the point of view of defeating al-Qaeda, the money spent defeating Saddam Hussein would have been better spent reconstructing Afghanistan.

The MPs called for substantial resources for re-building Afghanistan and Iraq because success was “of central importance to the war against terrorism”. They added: “The level of resentment of the US and UK presence in Iraq may well depend on the success of efforts to improve the lives of Iraqi people and progress in the Middle East. The resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to be of central importance to the long-term stabilisation of the Middle East region.”

Britain’s international relations

Britain should expect more benefits from its relationship with the US — for example, a fair trial for British detainees in Guantanamo Bay — the MPs said.

Splits in the EU had serious consequences, they added. They “raised serious questions about EU member states’ capacities to resolve differences . . . and of the feasibility of a common foreign and security policy on matters of controversy”. Divisions within the UN Security Council were likely to have been caused by “genuinely different assessments of the nature and extent of the threat” from Iraq.

The Iraq question provoked “one of the most severe crises in the history of Nato”, with France, Germany and Belgium vetoing the relief of US troops around Europe to free them for Iraq. Patriot missiles were deployed in Turkey only after France was bypassed in the decision-making structure.

Foreign Office

Bill Rammell, a Foreign Office minister, rejected suggestions that the Iraq conflict would push more volunteers into the arms of al-Qaeda. “I do not think the fact that we have removed a tyrant will help them in their recruitment process,” he said. “Saddam was a major sponsor of terrorism and removing him helps us in the war on terrorism.”

Main points

Security threats to UK have not diminished significantly in two years of the war against terrorism

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