UR TV CAST

Once they have had their fill, the students are told to wiggle their glass, which will signal to their host that three helpings of tea is quite enough.The class hold up their glasses and practise wiggling them. It’s a cosy scene, but, as with most tea parties, there are tensions simmering just under the surface. There are a dozen in this class, with 50 currently studying in the school. The rest of the British Army receives a language card containing such useful phrases as “Hello”, “How are you?”, “Stop” and “I will have to shoot”. Mastering the intricacies of Iraqi etiquette is not easy.In the classroom, Mr Issa, a senior lecturer in Arabic at the Defence School of Languages, is taking his students through the dos and don’ts of an Iraqi tea party.

“When you enter the house, take off your shoes and sit on the floor,” says Mr Issa, who has dual Syrian and British nationality. Following his own instructions, he sits cross-legged at the feet of his class and offers some words of wisdom “It is very hard to sit this way for a long time You will need to practise it. And, as the British Army settles in for a long stay in the region, with 1,200 extra troops being deployed to the area in the next few months, good relations with the local community have never been more important.It is a large responsibility resting on alarmingly few muscular shoulders. Of the 11,200 British troops who will be in Iraq by the end of the year, only 100 have so far received this rudimentary training in Iraqi culture. In June, six Redcaps (Royal Military Policemen) were killed in Majar al-Kabir after a riot that started when residents accused the British of breaking an agreement not to search their homes for weapons.

The lesson takes place in a plain classroom behind an 8ft security fence at the Defence School of Languages in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.Six months ago, one member of the class, Captain Steve Griffiths, 44, was serving in Iraq in the 7th Armoured Brigade “We controlled the guns throughout the conflict,” he says. “The troops at the front would tell us to fire at a particular location and we would co-ordinate it.” When he returns to the region in a few weeks’ time, he’ll be adopting a rather different tactic.After a 10-week course in Arabic and Iraqi customs, Captain Griffiths and his fellow pupils, drawn from all ranks on the basis of perceived aptitude, will be at the forefront of a charm offensive, hoping to ensure that the British make the right impression in southern Iraq.Much more than social death is at stake. There is now an average of 20 attacks per day on coalition forces. Most of these assaults have been on American troops, but the British have not been immune from local anger. “If you avoid these topics, you will be safe.”

“There are three things you should avoid talking about: sex, politics and religion,” says Mohamed Issa, looking sternly through his glasses at his attentive audience.