Britain will pay blood price of our alliance, Blair tells US (WITH YOU TO THE LAST)

Tony Blair has indicated that he is ready to risk seeing British service personnel injured or killed in a war with Iraq.

In a statement that will dismay his domestic critics, but raise his standing in the US before his weekend visit for talks with President Bush, the Prime Minister promised that Britain would be alongside the Americans "when the shooting starts".

Mr Blair also agreed that Britain's willingness to "pay the blood price" was part of the special relationship with America.

His remarks, in a television interview, will add to demands for him to recall Parliament and produce his promised dossier of evidence that Iraq is developing weapons of mass destruction. Many MPs are irritated that Mr Blair should have made a public statement in his Sedgefield constituency - at a press conference earlier this week - about the prospect of war, but not in Parliament.

The Conservatives, who support military action, say Parliament should be recalled after the evidence against Iraq has been produced.

Iain Duncan Smith said yesterday: "Now that I've heard the Prime Minister wants to publish a dossier I would encourage him to do that as soon as possible, preferably in the next few days, and when he's done that then I think after that we should have a debate.

"I think it would be better to have an informed debate rather than just a debate."

Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's a sad day if democratic forums like the House of Commons are silent while the discussion is going on literally everywhere else."

Privately, Liberal Democrats are saying they want Parliament to reassemble next week, so that Mr Blair can report on his talks with Mr Bush in Camp David.

What they fear is that the Government will publish its evidence immediately before the Labour Party conference, which starts on Sept 30, when the Liberal Democrats' conference will have finished.

Robin Cook, the Leader of the Commons, dismissed the idea that MPs be recalled now, but indicated that they would be if a war began.

"The Prime Minister said that action is neither imminent nor is it inevitable, so therefore it is not an urgent case for Parliament," he said.

However, he added later: "In practical terms it is not conceivable that Britain could embark on military action without the support in the House of Commons."

Mr Blair made his comments for a documentary about the relationship between British prime ministers and American presidents. It was recorded five weeks ago. When asked if Britain's willingness to "pay the blood price" was part of the special relationship between the two countries, Mr Blair said it was.

"What's important is at that moment of crisis, they don't need to know simply that you're giving general expressions of support and sympathy. That's easy, frankly.

"They need to know are you prepared to commit, are you prepared to be there, and when the shooting starts are you prepared to be there."

In the interview, for Hotline to the President, to be shown on BBC2 on Sunday, Mr Blair was asked whether he would be able to stop America attacking Iraq if he disagreed with the policy.

"I would never back America if I thought they were doing something wrong," he said. "But I've never found that and I don't expect to find it in the future."

The programme shows that Saddam has been a preoccupation for the two leaders for a long time. Sir Christopher Meyer, the British ambassador to Washington, reveals that when Mr Blair and Mr Bush met for the first time in Feb 2001, Iraq was the first item on the agenda.

In his interview, Mr Blair praised the American president as a man to work with. "The thing that has impressed me most is that he's really direct, he's really to the point, he's very straight and he's extremely easy to deal with," Mr Blair said.

"There's no hidden agenda, or undercurrents to the conversation. It's down to business and everything's out in the open and discussed properly."

In a speech today Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, will stress the need for setting some kind of timetable for action against Iraq.

Interesting, isn't it, that we haven't seen any chummy shots of the globetrotting X-42, "Herr Sinkmeister", hanging out with Mr. Blair since the election. I'll bet Mr. Blair cannot take enough showers to rid himself of the taint of his so-called friendship with Slick Willie, which occurred before the Lewinsky files were opened. Kudos to Blair for his honorable stance.

Blair & Clinton pre-blue dress revelations.

Next week's meeting between Clinton and Blair may set the course for the U.S. and Great Britain

January 31, 1998
Web posted at: 9:57 p.m. EDT (2157 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- White House sources tell CNN that next week's meeting between President Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair could be a turning point in dealing with Saddam Hussein -- unless the Iraqi president embraces a diplomatic solution to the weapons inspection standoff beforehand.

These sources say no military action would be considered until Secretary of State Madeleine Albright returns from her travels drumming up support for a tough line against Iraq.

Said one official: "The string doesn't run out at least until Madeleine gets back, but it is getting pretty short."

Given Blair's support for the U.S. position in dealing with Iraq, the sources said the two leaders were planning a strong condemnation of Hussein's behavior for their joint news conference on Friday, and that strategy for a military response would be a major subject of their talks.

Also, the official said several senior administration officials have been in touch with key members of Congress in recent days to bring them up to speed on administration strategy.

Stern warnings to Iraq

Meanwhile, American officials warned Iraq of U.S. military might.

Rear Adm. Michael Mullen, speaking from the deck of the USS George Washington, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier stationed about 100 miles off the southern coast of Iraq, said Saturday that if ordered to do so, Navy warplanes could launch continued attacks against Iraq for weeks in a "very precise and devastating manner."

Defense Secretary William Cohen on Saturday said in a Pentagon interview that any attack by the United States would be "significant." But Cohen warned against "unreasonable expectations" from any raids on Iraq, and stressed that there would be no attempt to destroy the country or depose the Iraqi president.

He said strikes would curtail Hussein's ability to make chemical or biological weapons or threaten his neighbors, but not render him completely harmless.

"The United State does not want to be in the position, nor do any of our allies, to say: 'Let's just devastate Iraq.'"

But, Cohen said, "The United States has the power to do great damage."

Sen. Jesse Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on CNN's "Evans & Novak" that he hopes President Clinton consults Congress before any action is take against Iraq. He said he hopes a military strike wouldn't be used as a "political gambit" to take the public's minds off of other events.

'The window is narrowing'

Speaking earlier Saturday in London, Albright said the time was fast approaching for fundamental decisions on Iraq as diplomacy proving unable to resolve the crisis.

"The window is narrowing ... It looks as if diplomacy is not working," she told a joint news conference with British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.

In Amman, King Hussein of Jordan on Saturday said in a letter to his brother Crown Prince Hassan, broadcast by state TV, that Iraq should give in to U.N. demands for unrestricted access to search for weapons of mass destruction and take the threat of a military strike gravely.

"The stubbornness in not responding to the demands of the Security Council is a very dangerous misjudgment and will, God forbid, push towards an explosions," King Hussein said.

Harsh words from Iraq

Meanwhile, Iraq renewed criticism of Richard Butler, the chief U.N. weapons inspector. He has been criticized since he gave an interview to The New York Times in which he said that Iraq has enough biological weapons to "blow away Tel Aviv, or where ever."

Butler later said he had no information that Iraq was specifically targeting Tel Aviv.

Iraqi Oil Minister Gen. Amer Mohammed Rashid said Butler's interview was "meant to justify the participation of the Zionist enemy (Israel) in the American plot to carry out an aggression against the Iraqi people."

The Iraqi government daily Al-Jumhuriyaa said, "The Security Council should restrain this loose man, the talker, because an international employee must be balanced, speak very little and behave well. He should not be a reason to trigger a war."

Iraq, which denies possessing weapons of mass destruction, ended a three-day guided tour of its palaces aimed at showing foreign diplomats that its "presidential sites" held no secrets.


The sticking point remains Iraq's insistence that U.N. teams are not allowed to inspect presidential palaces

In addition to the 23 experts in Baghdad for so-called technical evaluation talks on the weapons confrontation, another team of arms inspectors also arrived in Iraq on Saturday. The Iraqi News Agency said U.N. arms inspectors visited 14 sites on Saturday, but it gave no details.

The technical evaluation talks, which start Sunday, are aimed at solving the dispute between Iraq and the United Nations on the accounting of Iraq's weaponry. Another round in mid-February will consider biological weapons.

U.N. weapons inspectors must certify whether Iraq has eliminated all of its weapons of mass destruction. Such a move is needed before U.N. sanctions, imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of neighboring Kuwait, can be lifted.

Albright tries to drum up support

Albright flew to the Middle East on Saturday to line up Arab support for what could be a British-U.S. attack on Iraq.


Annan

Also, she was to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A factor in the crisis is the fear that Baghdad could fire missiles at Israel if Western nations make a military move against the Iraqi leader.

That possibility, and the chance that Israel would retaliate, compound an already difficult situation for Albright, who wants Arab backing in the event of an attack on Iraq.

Iraq landed 39 Scud missiles in Israel in the 1991 Gulf War, killing 11 civilians. At the behest of the Bush administration, which wanted to Arab support for the anti-Iraq coalition, Israel did not retaliate against Iraq.

U.S. officials would not say whether Albright would ask Netanyahu not to retaliate if Israel is attacked.

The United States is pushing for a phased withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank to further Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. U.S. officials are insisting that pushing for such a withdrawal was not designed to placate Arab leaders who would disapprove of an attack on Iraq.

Hopes for peace continue

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Saturday called for more time to resolve the crisis through diplomacy, as Russian President Boris Yeltsin ordered his special envoy to head for Baghdad for the second time in a week in search of a diplomatic solution.

Annan spoke at news conference in the Swiss resort of Davos, where world political and business leaders were gathering for a meeting.

"Lots of consultations are going on in various capitals and everyone concerned, including the Americans, have made it clear they would prefer a diplomatic solution. Let us give it time. Let us see what happens."

Yeltsin's envoy, deputy foreign minister Viktor Posuvalyuk, will travel to Baghdad on Sunday.

"My mission tomorrow will be extremely difficult," he said in remarks broadcast on Russian TV.

"They (the Iraqis) have made certain proposals. We have to try to get more concessions from them so we can make a package of proposals, which would help solve the problem...," he said.

King Hussein and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak are cautioning the United States against using force in its confrontation with Iraq.

Jordan's King Hussein said strikes against Iraq would harm civilians and set back the Arab-Israeli peace process. Mubarak said in remarks to be published Sunday in the Al-Akhbar newspaper that "the use of force will lead to an increase in the tension."

Correspondents John King, Carl Rochelle and Peter Arnett, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Iraq Standoff Main | Latest Stories | Message Board

Related stories:

U.N. seeks more time to resolve Iraqi crisis - January 31, 1998
Support may be growing for air strikes against Iraq - January 30, 1998
U.S. to send more planes, troops to Gulf region - January 30, 1998
U.S. gives diplomacy last-ditch effort in Iraq crisis - January 29, 1998

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