President George Bush will today try to persuade Tony Blair to take the next and possibly final step towards war by setting a deadline for Iraq to disarm or face a military attack.
Diplomats at the UN security council yesterday signalled that support was growing within the Bush administration that a date should be set for the phoney war to end.
Bush raised the deadline option with the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, yesterday, underlining that it would be fixed in a matter of ”weeks not months”.
While talk of deadlines is likely to be top of Bush’s agenda at today’s Camp David meeting, for Blair the priority will be to urge the president to stick with the United Nations in his drive to disarm Iraq.
Blair flew to Washington overnight, confident that a second UN resolution can be secured and convinced that European opinion will rally to tough action so long as Bush shows restraint.
Speaking on the way to a brief summit with the Spanish prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, he said: ”I believe that if the weapons inspector feels Saddam is refusing to cooperate, the implication of UN resolution 1441 is clear that there should be a second resolution and I believe in these circumstances there will be.”
Blair’s focus on the need for a second resolution may find itself superseded by events. The Americans have made it clear in the past week that they are prepared to act with or without such a resolution, and the new emphasis on a deadline suggests that their priority is now the timing of war, not international endorsement for it.
”For the sake of peace, this issue has to be resolved,” Bush said yesterday, adding that if President Saddam chose to quit Iraq and go into exile he would welcome that.
Diplomats at the UN in New York said that the preference in Washington would be for President Saddam to be given a set of conditions which he had to meet within a short deadline. Were he to fail to meet those conditions in time, the period of talking would end.
A similar deadline was set in the Gulf war of 1991. January 15 was set as the UN deadline for Iraq to leave Kuwait; two days later the bombing started.
Blair will spend much of his time at Camp David impressing on Bush that a war in Iraq launched unilaterally without fresh effort to persuade public opinion will prove disastrous for the transatlantic relationship. The urgency of that message was heightened yesterday as Europe reeled from an increasingly open division over the transatlantic relationship.
In a letter published yesterday across Europe, Blair joined hands with Spain, Italy and several eastern European countries to urge unity with America — a clear dig at the so-called ”old Europe” of France and Germany, which have so far been more resistant to the rush towards war.
However, the British believe that the French, who have the power of veto on the UN security council, will eventually fall into line as they do not wish to be isolated from American or a large tranche of European opinion.
Blair said: ”We have got a clear agreed position. We are not setting an arbitrary time deadline. It is a question of judgment of whether the inspectors can do what they were set out to do. The duty of Iraq is to cooperate in every respect. Resolution 1441 is very clear not to just provide access but to provide active cooperation in setting out what weapons of mass destruction they have and giving full cooperation in closing them down.”
He said the chief UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix, in his report to the UN on Monday had been clear he is not receiving cooperation. Last night Blix confirmed that there were no signs yet of increased cooperation from Iraq. Speaking to Channel 4 News, Blix also said there was no evidence to suggest the Iraqis were granting inspectors greater access to key scientists they want to interview.
Blair said: ”What the Iraqis are trying to do is the minimum possible they can and have some hope of persuading some people they are engaged in some form of cooperation. That is not good enough. The duty is to fully cooperate. Of course it is right for the inspectors to have the time in order to make that judgment.”
He also indicated that he will be telling President Bush that the battle for public opinion is heavily dependent on the degree of UN support shown for military action. He said the polls show ”the people are in a completely different place with UN support”.
Blair said he was not basing his case on links between al-Qaeda in Iraq and the attack on New York on September 11 but he hinted that Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, will provide evidence of an al-Qaeda presence inside Iraq.
Preparations for war continued yesterday as Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, announced that up to 6 000 reservists were being called up. The 4 500 reservists, in addition to 1 500 mobilised earlier, include chemical and biological warfare experts.
Iraq has invited Blix and Mohamed El Baradei, of the international atomic energy authority, back to Baghdad for more talks before their next report to the security council on February 14. Iraqi presidential adviser Amer al-Saadi said the talks would be aimed at ”boosting cooperation and transparency”. – Guardian Unlimited Â