1 Introduction
1. This inquiry, which we started in September 2014,
has taken evidence from a number of witnesses on a variety of
different aspects of the situation in Iraq and Syria. We would
like to thank all of those who provided written evidence to the
inquiry and to thank those who gave oral evidence to us. They
were: Joost Hiltermann, Chief Operating Officer, International
Crisis Group; Professor Toby Dodge, Director of the Middle East
Centre, London School of Economics; Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, Shillman-Ginsburg
Fellow at the Middle East Forum; Lieutenant Colonel (retired)
Richard Williams; Dr Douglas Porch, US Naval Postgraduate School;
General (retired) Richard Shirreff; Major General (retired) Jonathan
Shaw; Emma Sky, Yale University; Professor Marc Weller, Cambridge
University; Professor Adam Roberts, Oxford University; Dr Adrian
Gallagher, Leeds University; Aaron Stein, Royal United Services
Institute (RUSI); Lieutenant General Sir Simon Mayall, Defence
Senior Adviser to the Middle East; Lieutenant General Gordon Messenger
RM, Deputy Chief of Defence Staff Military Strategy & Operations;
and, Mr Peter Watkins, Director General Security Policy, Ministry
of Defence.
2. We also asked questions on the subject of Iraq
(and Syria) during evidence sessions dedicated to other inquiries.
This allowed us to question Admiral Sir George Zambellas, the
First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, General Sir Nicholas
Carter, Chief of the General Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Andrew
Pulford, Chief of the Air Staff, General Sir Richard Barrons,
Commander Joint Forces Command, and the Secretary of State for
Defence, the Rt Hon Michael Fallon MP.
3. As part of this inquiry we visited both Baghdad
and Erbil (capital of the Kurdish region of Iraq) as well as Amman
in Jordan. We wish to express our thanks to both the staff of
the British embassies and consulates who hosted us, and also to
all of our interlocutors. The visit was invaluable in contributing
to our understanding of the situation and we particularly appreciated
the chance to meet British troops involved in training and defence
engagement in the region.
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