Tony Blair raised the stakes in the campaign to disarm Saddam Hussein by warning British voters that they face a direct threat from weapons of mass destruction which will find their way into the hands of terrorist groups unless firm action is taken now.
The prime minister used his first press conference of the new year to stress repeatedly that he is determined to act with the authority of the United Nations. But he refused to commit himself categorically to a UN course in case ”justified” military action was vetoed by a single member of the security council, as happened when Russia blocked UN intervention over Kosovo in 1999. Nato went in instead.
Warning that North Korea and other rogue states trading in chemical, biological or nuclear material must be tackled after Iraq, Blair told sceptical listeners that ”if we don’t deal with it one day we will wake up to discover that terrorist groups who are complete fanatics” are in possession of them.
That formula appeared to be a fresh attempt to persuade critics that — despite no evidence of a direct link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda — the fight against global terrorism is an indivisible one as he warned President George Bush long before the attacks on September 11 2001.
”I tell you every single day I am faced as British prime minister with information about how these weapons are proliferating, about how states are trying to acquire nuclear capability — states you would not want to have that capability — how chemical and biological weapons are being freely traded by groups and individuals right across the world. It is a matter of time, unless we act and take a stand, before terrorism and weapons of mass destruction come together.”
He described talk of a cabinet split as ”complete nonsense”, but repeatedly acknowledged the fears of Labour MPs and activists, as well as the general public.
In otherwise conciliatory remarks, he dismissed critics who say Britain need not be involved in the drive against proliferation of WMD as naive and misguided: ”It is disingenuous to argue that we want to work through the UN, but only if the UN does what we want.”
He insisted: ”There is a direct threat to British national security in the trade in chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.”
Conservative critics later said he sounded steady, but that his cabinet is divided. In the Commons Labour leftwingers protested that Blair should have addressed them, not journalists at No 10, a clash of loyalties more obvious now that MPs are sitting during the day.
Much of what Blair said was familiar from recent speeches and he even said ”I don’t think we have been in a different position, frankly, for six months” in terms of the stalemate with Saddam.
”My view is that the December 8 declaration (Baghdad’s weapons inventory), as we said at the time, is a false declaration because we believe he has these weapons of mass destruction and he is saying he doesn’t.”
Unlike Bush, he did not call it a formal breach of UN security council resolution 1441 which would, the White House says, justify an attack without further resolution.
”But the inspectors are in there in order to find out the truth and what they find is then put before the United Nations security council. And all I’m saying is if what they find amounts to a breach of the UN mandate then Saddam will be disarmed by force,” Blair said several times. He was adamant that evidence of Saddam’s deceit will be found.
Blair ducked a challenge to say that the looming war could be fought during the hot Iraqi summer if Saddam does not back down. He also brushed aside calls from Labour MPs that Saddam could be undermined by indicting him for war crimes before he is overthrown.
With Washington divided over the pace of the pressure being applied, he also avoided all talk of diplomatic timetables. – Guardian Unlimited Â