John Reid Course Quotations

My intention is that in the course of the next week or two you will see that far from being an impasse, that this short and temporary suspension will have been a platform for us to go forward.

It is a matter of political practicality. In the course of the next four years this decision will take place. It will inevitably be more public than such decisions in the past,

We are not saying that everyone will be out by the end of 2006 but we are saying that this process - despite the terrorist attempts to destroy it - is going relatively well, and, in the course of the next year, we could well see the handover to Iraqi forces at certain places in Iraq, including in our own area,

We don't need them (more troops) at the moment, if that's necessary, of course we would do that,

In the course of next year, there could be the start of the process of the handover to the Iraqis.

I don't think that anybody has ever suggested our troops will be out of Iraq by next May, ... What I have said is in the course of next year there could be the start of the process of the handover to the Iraqis.

And that is why in the course of the day, while we were negotiating, in view of that fact that they weren't handed over, we got increasingly worried and the commander on the spot, with hindsight, was absolutely right to do what he did, because we discovered they weren't in the police station, they were somewhere else, but are now safe,