Straw: Iraq War May Have Spread Democracy

10 March 2005 -- British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq may have helped spread democracy in the Middle East.

Speaking today in London, Straw said the recent elections in Iraq, elections in Saudi Arabia and protests in Lebanon over Syria's presence are evidence of a popular desire to see democratic reforms in the region.

Straw said "it will be for historians to judge" if the Iraq war contributed to what he sees as the "emergence of democracy" in the Middle East.

(AP/AFP)