3.2 |
Development of UK strategy and options, January to April 2002 –
“axis of evil” to Crawford
190.
Mr Campbell
wrote that Mr Blair had given an interview for ABC
which was
“very
forward on
Iraq and pro GWB [President Bush]. He had decided that was the
best
position to
adopt to gain influence.”61
191.
The
Telegraph the following
day reported that Mr Blair had “stepped up his
rhetoric
against
Saddam Hussein”, and that his remarks were the “strongest support
yet” for
President
Bush’s “tough line”. It was “seen as an attempt to prepare the
British public
for a
second phase in the war against terrorism”.62
192.
On 3 March, Mr
Blair was reported to have told Channel
Nine in
Australia:
“We know
they [Iraq] are trying to accumulate … weapons of mass
destruction,
we know
he’s prepared to use them. So this is a real issue but how we deal
with
it, that’s
a matter we must discuss.”63
193.
Mr Blair was
also reported to have argued that the lessons of 11 September
meant
that such
threats must be tackled; and that “if we don’t act we will find out
too late the
potential
for destruction”.
194.
Introducing a
debate in the House of Commons on 4 March, on the
Government’s
policy
towards countries supporting international terrorism, in particular
Syria, Iran
and Iraq,
Mr Jim Murphy (Labour) stated that Iraq had a history of
support for terrorist
organisations
and had:
“More
recently … again assumed a high profile, taking centre stage in
world politics.
It is now
absolutely clear in the wider sense of global and regional security
that
Iraq must
act. Saddam Hussein, newly armed with an improved weapons of
mass
destruction
capability, is a threat not only to his own people and his
neighbours,
but to
international security. The United Kingdom, along with its allies,
is rightly
considering
action, but I firmly believe that we must also publish whatever
evidence
we can,
notwithstanding the lack of observers on the ground.
“There is
evidence of the increased viability and range of Iraq’s weapons of
mass
destruction,
and we need to persuade not only the House but the British
public
and world
opinion – especially Arab opinion that, because of the threat posed
by
Saddam to
his neighbours and to world security, we may, unfortunately, be
left with
no
alternative as an international community but to act, in more than
a diplomatic
195.
Responding to
Mr Murphy, Mr Ben Bradshaw, the Parliamentary Under
Secretary
of State
for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, encouraged Mr Murphy “and
other
61
Campbell A
& Hagerty B. The
Alastair Campbell Diaries. Volume 4. The Burden of Power:
Countdown
to Iraq.
Hutchinson,
2012.
62
The
Telegraph, 1 March
2002, Blair backs
Bush on ‘evil’ of Iraq.
63
BBC
News, 3 March
2002, Blair gives
Iraq new warning.
64
House of
Commons, Official
Report, 4 March
2002, column 125.
419