UK forces moved from Iraq to Kuwait

All British troops in Iraq are being temporarily relocated to Kuwait after the Iraq Parliament failed to ratify an agreement allowing them to remain in the country, the Ministry of Defence has said.

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said all British troops in Iraq are being temporarily relocated to K Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said all British troops in Iraq are being temporarily relocated to K

The UK troops - between 100 and 150 - are likely to stay out of Iraq until late September due to the Iraq parliamentary recess and religious fasting period of Ramadan.

The mandate allowing British troops to stay in Iraq expires on July 31 and its third reading has not yet been passed.

The vast majority of British forces have already been withdrawn from Iraq but some troops remained to train the new Iraqi Navy and to protect its territorial waters. They will all be moved to Kuwait by the end of the week.

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth told his Tory shadow counterpart Liam Fox in a letter: "(The agreement) had successful first and second readings but the imminent Iraqi summer recess and Kurdish elections on July 25 have meant that their Parliament has not yet been able to reach the quorum needed to have the third and final reading.

"The recess in August and Ramadan (which lasts from August 20 to September 20) means that the agreement may not now be ratified until late September."

An MoD spokesman said US troops would be standing in for British troops while they were out of the country.

An agreement between the UK and Iraq governments to allow British forces to remain was signed by Iraqi ministers on June 6.

But it faced opposition led by followers of anti-US Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Iraqi Parliament adjourned on Monday for a recess without ratifying the deal.

An MoD spokesman said: "While this delay is unfortunate, we are continuing to seek a solution with the Iraqi government that will provide our forces with the sound legal basis they need. We must respect the Iraqi democratic processes."

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