LONDON/BAGHDAD, 26 July — Military action against Iraq is not imminent, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday, adding: “We are not at the point of decision yet”. Blair told reporters at a London press conference: “I actually think we are all getting a bit ahead of ourselves on the issue of Iraq. As I have said before, action is not imminent, we are not at the point of decision yet. And there are many issues to be considered before we are at the point of decision.”
He, however, fueled simmering discontent among Labour MPs when he made it clear that Britain could back an attack on Iraq without a fresh mandate from the UN or a vote in Parliament. He said action against Saddam was “not imminent” but he made no effort to rule it out.
Blair insisted that he would follow previous practice on action in Kosovo and Afghanistan, where MPs were not given a vote beforehand. Asked why he had consistently declined to promise such a vote, Blair said: “Because it’s important that if we do get to that situation that we follow the precedents there have always been ... I am not going to pin myself at this stage to any specific form of consultation.
Blair said earlier this week that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was seeking to acquire nuclear weapons to add to his chemical weapons capability and suspected biological weapons stockpiles
Meanwhile, a senior Russian envoy said in Baghdad yesterday Russia opposes US military strike on Iraq but wants Baghdad to cooperate with the United Nations on disarmament issues.
“The Russian position is very well-known. We are against military scenarios and the international community must endeavor to find a political solution” to Baghdad’s problems with the UN Security Council, visiting Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov told reporters.
Saltanov, speaking after talks with Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, was commenting on US threats to take military action against Saddam. A settlement should “obviously be based on Security Council resolutions ... and this should include the resumption of Iraqi cooperation in the scrapping of mass destruction weapons along with the suspension and (subsequent) lifting of (UN) sanctions” enforced on Iraq for the past 12 years, Saltanov said.
The Russian official said he had discussed with Sabri “ways of finding a political solution to the problem” of UN arms inspections and the sanctions in force since Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The two sides had agreed to “keep up consultations”, he added.
Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan during talks with Saltanov said his country wanted to continue dialogue with the United Nations, after a round of talks in July failed to bring Iraq to accept re-admitting arms inspectors.
“Iraq wants dialog with the UN secretary-general to be without conditions and wants it to be based on Security Council resolutions,” Ramadan said, quoted by the official agency INA. (The Independent)
