Posted on 02/15/2003 3:23:29 AM PST by AntiGuv
LONDON - Iraqi concessions to United Nations weapons inspectors are "suspect," Prime Minister Tony Blair told his ruling Labor Party Saturday.
Blair said he was still committed to solving the Iraq crisis through the United Nations and said weapons inspectors would be given more time. But he insisted Saddam Hussein must be dealt with.
"The concessions are suspect, unfortunately the weapons are real," he told a party conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
"I still believe in the United Nations," Blair said. "I continue to want to solve the issue of Iraq and weapons of mass destruction through the U.N."
He said inspections should not drag on, as they did immediately after the Gulf War in 1991, without full Iraqi cooperation.
"The time needed is not the time that it takes the inspectors to discover the weapons. They are not a detective agency," Blair said.
He added: "The time is the time necessary to make a judgment: is Saddam prepared to cooperate fully or not? If he is, the inspectors can take as much time as they want.
"If he is not, if this is a repeat of the 1990s, and I fear that it is, let us be under no doubt about what is at stake."
In a bid to boost Britain and the United States' tough stance on Iraq, Blair said Saddam had already killed people with chemical weapons.
"Iraq under Saddam became the first country to use chemical weapons against its own people," Blair said.
"Are we sure that if we allow him to keep such weapons he will not use them again?"
He said terrorism and weapons of mass destruction in the hands of rogue states were "twins of chaos," posing a new and grave danger of the world.
Although Blair has enthusiastically rallied behind Washington's tough stance on Iraq, opposition to war in Britain is strong. Successive opinion polls indicate a large majority of Britons oppose military action against Saddam's regime without U.N. backing.
Blair's speech to Labor Party delegates in Glasgow comes a day after the report of the chief U.N. inspectors gave fresh encouragement to opponents of military action.
Chief inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei avoided harsh criticism of the Iraqi regime when they reported to the Security Council Friday. Instead of galvanizing support for a quick war, the majority of council members cited the inspectors' reports of improved Iraqi cooperation to call for renewed efforts to peacefully disarm Saddam.
Several senior Labor lawmakers planned to take part in a rally in London on Saturday, and they have been sharply critical of the prime minister's passionate support of President Bush.
Fifty-seven lawmakers, most from Labor, signed a motion Thursday demanding Britain stay out of a war unless it is authorized by Parliament. Ministers have promised lawmakers a substantive vote on any war, but not necessarily before troops are sent into action.
Labor chairman John Reid acknowledged Friday there was "widespread anxiety" in the party about the government's tough stance on Iraq, but he defended Blair's leadership.
"It is ... the duty of leaders to lead, to say it as they see it, to be honest with the party and with the people, especially when they believe this country and the world to be in peril," he told delegates in Glasgow.
Britain's finance chief, Chancellor Gordon Brown and Home Secretary David Blunkett also rallied behind their leader.
"In the difficult decisions he has to make for our country, we should all give Tony Blair, the leader of our party, our full support as he seeks to find an international way forward for the necessary disarmament of Saddam Hussein," said Brown.
High-profile supporters of Saturday's rally in London include the capital's mayor, Ken Livingstone; human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger; playwright Harold Pinter; the leader of Britain's opposition Liberal Democrats, Charles Kennedy; and U.S. civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson.
The opposition to war is welcomed by Saddam.....
Are we sure Hussein will not use chemical weapons again?
There are consquences paid in blood for leaving saddam in power
ridding then world of Saddam will be an act of humanity
Blair said he was still committed to solving the Iraq crisis through the United Nations and said weapons inspectors would be given more time.
Yes. They need more time.......right up until the next New Moon on March 3. Then the war will start.
I sincerely believe that Prime Minister Blair would not say this unless it were absolutely true. In fact, the drooling anti-war idiots believe it too, or they wouldn't keep telling us that if the Coalition of the Willing attacks Iraq, Saddam will retaliate with weapons of mass distruction that both the drooling anti-war idiots and Saddam say Iraq does not have.
I guess inspectors get two more weeks...ah well...the schedule is still proceeding according to plan.
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