Baghdad - Jaafar Nassrawi
The British Ambassador to Iraq, Michael Aron Baghdad - Jaafar Nassrawi The British Ambassador to Iraq, Michael Aron, said that his country and its allies, especially the United States, are happy with their success in changing the totalitarian and dictatorial rule in Iraq. He also said that the British government is working to topple the al-Assad regime in Syria. In an interview with Arabstoday, the British Ambassador said that his country, despite working to overthrow the regime of Bashar al-Assad, also understands the concerns of the country\'s friends, about extremists gaining power in Syria. Aron ruled out resorting to military solutions to topple the Syrian regime, at least for the time being, but at the same time it will work on preventing the Syrian army from receiving any support which would help the Alawite regime to prolong its rule further. Aron emphasised that \"terrorism, in all its forms, is unacceptable, and that every effort being currently exerted is focussed towards looking for an appropriate alternative to the current Syrian crisis and among the priorities set by the UK and its allies, is to prevent extremists from gaining power in Syria. \" Aron added that the Iraqi government\'s fears of extremists taking power in Syria is understandable, for the links between the two countries are many, the most prominent of which is the long joint border, trade interests, in addition to terrorism that is affecting Iraq, especially, \"as Syria is an open thoroughfare through which terrorists can enter Iraq\" the ambassador said. The ambassador expressed the delight of the UK and its allies,\" on the success of the plan to transfer power in Iraq to a democratic system, as opposed to the totalitarian dictatorial one\" -- in reference to the governance of Saddam Hussein’s regime -- as now in Iraq there is an elected government and parliament. He believes that the political conflict going on in Iraq is the strongest evidence of the success of the democratic process, \"as every one is free to express his views provided they are within the constitution and law.\" Aron stressed the importance of keeping foreign intervention out of Iraqi affairs, which he says is the position of the UK government and what it is trying to encourage while denying that the UK is supporting any party at the expense of another. He also said that the UK does not support the no-confidence motion against the Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, mentioning that this is a matter for the political parties and the Iraqis themselves. He added that Iraqi politicians should be up to the task of shouldering their responsibilities to steer the country away from tension into safer waters, by continuing their meetings around the dialogue table and working towards providing services to the Iraqi citizens. The British Ambassador praised the great strides which have taken place in the improved relations between Iraq and Kuwait in recent times, a fact that he said \"would enable Iraq to exit from Chapter VII soon\" and that the UK along with its ally, the USA, would support Iraq in its exit strategy from this chapter, after all the pending issues between Iraq and Kuwait are settled, such as compensation for victims\' families of the Gulf War as well as the missing, and the demarcation of the border. Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter deals with the peaceful settlement of disputes. It requires countries with disputes that could lead to war to first of all try to seek solutions through peaceful methods such as \"negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.\" If these methods of alternative dispute resolution fail, then they must refer it to the UN Security Council.