"Absolutely possible" Margaret Beckett isn't a puppet

The UK foreign secretary has said the time is right to reassess Iraq policy, but added the country does not have to slide into "gloom and disaster".

Margaret Beckett criticised "incessant harping" about the worst, telling the BBC it was "absolutely possible" that Iraq could become stable and unified.

However it was right to reassess policy although there was no "magic formula".

She added that the future of Iraq was "in large part" in Iraqis', and its neighbouring countries', hands.

A report published last week by the US cross-party Iraq Study Group said the situation there was "grave" and "deteriorating". Link

As Israel bombed Lebanese civilians in the July War John Williams [spokesman for the past three foreign secretaries] says Margaret Beckett was little more than a "frustrated bystander" since all policy came out of Downing Street