DAMMAM, 20 January 2003 — The British Minister for International Trade and Investment, Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean, has said that a US-led attack on Iraq “is not inevitable, though the possibilities do exist.”
The minister was replying to questions posed by Saudi businessmen after her address at the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce and Industry here yesterday.
She said the Labour government of Prime Minister Tony Blair believed that the solution to the crisis lied with the United Nations.
Baroness Symons said that it was up to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to cooperate with the UN weapons inspectors and avoid a catastrophe for his people.
She added that the notion that Jan. 27 was a deadline for war or peace was wrong. The inspectors will submit their report on Jan. 27 and then it will be discussed at the United Nations.
The minister was evasive when Arab News asked her a question about what Britain’s stand would be if the UN Security Council rejected an attack on Iraq but the US went ahead in any case.
She said that Britain will take a decision only after studying the entire situation, insisting that Britain passionately wanted to avoid a military conflict.
However, she also said that nobody could feel comfortable with the current situation.
“For years the Iraqi regime has flouted the authority of the United Nations. For more than four years it has been able to develop weapons of mass destruction with no international check whatsoever. We hope the world community will stick to its united resolve and bring this issue to a peaceful conclusion.”
On the Middle East conflict, she said Britain wholeheartedly supported Crown Prince Abdullah’s formula to resolve the crisis. She expressed her hope that the killings would end on both sides.
“We believe that (creation of) two states working side by side is the true and just solution to the Palestinian issue,” said the minister.
On economic ties between Britain and the Kingdom, the minister said that Saudi Arabia was by far the UK’s largest investment partner in the Middle East. “We are committed to developing the partnership between Britain and the Eastern Province.”
She referred to a British government initiative to ensure that British training expertise is used to add value to the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors in Saudi Arabia, and disclosed that a British government-sponsored delegation of Eastern Province oil and gas companies would visit the UK next month.
The minister congratulated Saudi Arabia on its economic reform program.
“We hope that the momentum of liberalization and reform will increase so that the Kingdom can compete even more effectively in the international investment market.”
The British government also supported Saudi Arabia’s bid to enter the World Trade Organization (WTO), she added.
