‘Iran Has a Very Clear Choice’

David Miliband, currently the British foreign secretary and a possible future leader of the Labour Party, sat down last week with NEWSWEEK's Lally Weymouth to defend the release of the Libyan terrorist convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, and to discuss Britain's role in Afghanistan and the upcoming talks with Iran. Excerpts:

WEYMOUTH: The thing that is on everybody's mind here is the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Libyan found guilty of the Lockerbie bombing. How could you have released him?
MILIBAND: It was a decision by the Scottish authorities, according to the criminal-justice laws of Scotland.

Did you oppose the decision?
It wasn't for us to interfere. We did not oppose it.

My daughter had a friend who was killed on that plane. I know you had a deal with the United States that he was supposed to stay in jail. Why did you go back on the deal?
We did not go back on any "deal." The passions around the appalling terrorist murders on Pan Am 103 are deeply felt in America and in Britain, and rightly so. That is something that unites us. We are also absolutely clear that the independence of the Scottish judiciary in respect to this decision is something that is separate from those wider considerations.

What did you think of General McChrystal's recent Afghan report?
The McChrystal report says the situation is serious, and we agree with him. He says we need a combined security/economic/political approach, and we agree with him. He says that we need to put the Afghans in the lead of security and of political reconciliation, and we agree with him. He says that it is essential that the Afghan government governs in a clean and not corrupt way because that is vital to retain the confidence of the Afghans as well as the inter-national community, and he is right. What we face is a big task of implementing the strategy.

Are you thinking of lessening your commitment to Afghanistan?
No, we are not. We are absolutely clear that it is essential for our own security that we are there.

Do you wonder why the Obama administration does not say to the American people that what it is really trying to do is not to reform Afghanistan but to control its borders with Pakistan?
It is a 2,600-kilometer border. What we want is [for] the country to be able to defend itself. You are not going to build a 2,600-kilometer electric fence.