Portrait of the Week – 29 May 2004

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said that political control of military action would pass to the Iraqi government after 30 June. Speaking at his regular monthly press conference, he said, ‘Let me make it a hundred per cent clear: after June 30 there will be the full transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi government. If there is a political decision as to whether you go into a place like Fallujah in a particular way, that has to be done with the consent of the Iraqi government.’ British troops should leave Iraq now, according to 35 per cent of respondents to an ICM poll for the Guardian; 45 per cent said they thought they should remain in Iraq as long as necessary. Two British civilians were killed when their vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Baghdad; one of them was Bob Morgan, a retired senior project director for BP on a six-month contract for the Foreign Office, seconded to the Coalition Provisional Authority to advise the Iraqi oil minister.