Tony Blair last night appealed to George Bush to combine America’s quest for its own security with the wider needs of international justice when the two leaders of the Iraqi war coalition met on British soil to review their military and diplomatic strategy.
Hyper-security as Bush flew into Belfast contrasted with deliberate informality once he met Blair in the safety of Hillsborough Castle, Co Down — a deliberate attempt to recreate the atmosphere of Camp David, where the pair met two weeks ago.
In a unique gesture of solidarity with a prime minister who has risked his domestic political base to let Britain fight alongside US forces in Iraq, Bush, an unenthusiastic traveller, flew 3 000 miles for his third face-to-face talks with Blair in a month.
Before dinner the president and prime minister went for a walk in the grounds to discuss an agenda which will — symbolically — also embrace the peace processes of Northern Ireland and the Middle East.
At the top of that agenda, as British and US armies tightened their grip on Baghdad and Basra, was the postwar government of Iraq. Britain is determined to ensure that the international community — above all, the UN — has a significant role despite US scepticism.
Faced with the American desire to dominate both military and civil authorities — under General Tommy Franks and the ex-general Jay Garner — for at least three months, Mr Blair is pinning his hopes for an ”Iraq for the Iraqis” on the interim authority to be appointed from a mixture of exiled and resident opponents of President Saddam.
The authority should be ”as representative of the complex multi-ethnic nature of Iraq as possible and the UN should be as involved as much as possible”, a British government representative said.
Colin Powell, who with Jack Straw joined the talks, sounded conciliatory about an ”important role” for the UN and other international agencies, including Nato, the IMF and the World Bank, in reconstructing Iraq.
”There’s enough work for everyone to have a role. But the leading role initially, of course, has to be the coalition, necessarily,” the US secretary of state told reporters travelling on Airforce One.
As part of the ”security with justice” strategy Blair was expected to impress upon Bush, he wants the interim administration to be allowed to work initially alongside the Garner team, helping to ease fears that three months of US direct rule could turn into six.
That would only serve to alienate world opinion and boost what Downing Street regards as a ”catastrophic” scenario whereby France and Germany are tempted to seek a rival pole of global power in cooperation with Russia.
For that reason the prime minister will be anxious to push home his message, unpopular in Washington, that bold US leadership is needed on the Middle East peace process. Starting with the long-promised ”road map”, it will benefit Israel as well as the Palestinians, and reassure the region that the coalition’s aims are honourable, he will tell Bush this morning.
When the two leaders later meet the Irish prime minister, Bertie Ahern, they will not pull a rabbit out of the hat to rescue the five-year-old Belfast agreement, a model for patient peacemaking, Blair insists. But Bush’s presence is intended to send a message to both sides of the sectarian divide that the US is watching.
That applies especially to Sinn Fein, British ministers argue, since the attacks of September 11 — and IRA involvement in Colombia — have changed ambivalent official US attitudes towards terrorism.
Unionist and nationalist politicians took advantage of Bush’s visit to demonstrate their stances on the Iraq war.
Last night, David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist leader, and the Democratic Unionist chief, Ian Paisley, attended a Belfast city centre rally and prayer vigil in support of the troops in the Gulf, as Sinn Fein and SDLP supporters joined hundreds of anti-war protesters near Hillsborough.
Iraq will remain a major focus today, but the president is expected to issue a call to republican and loyalist paramilitaries to lay down their arms.
Blair and Ahern will return to Hillsborough on Thursday to publish a blueprint on policing reform, demilitarisation and other issues, which they hope will spur the IRA to declare its war over and enable unionists to re-enter the power-sharing Stormont government. – Guardian Unlimited Â