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Britain”s Straw rejects link between backing U.S. in Iraq and London bombings | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Brussels, Belgium – British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Monday rejected suggestions that nations which backed the United States in Iraq were more vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

Straw was responding to a report by Chatham House, Britain”s Royal Institute of International Affairs, which said Britain”s close ties with Washington and involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan left it at greater risk

of a terrorist attack.

&#34I”m astonished that Chatham House is now saying that we should not have stood shoulder to shoulder with our long-standing allies in the United States,&#34 Straw told reporters before chairing an EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels.

&#34The time for excuses for terrorism is over,&#34 Straw was quoted as saying by The Associated Press.

&#34The terrorists have struck across the world, in countries allied with the United States, backing the war in Iraq and in countries which had nothing whatever to do with the war in Iraq,&#34 he added.