3.7 |
Development of UK strategy and options, 1 February to 7 March
2003
17.
In response,
Mr Iain Duncan Smith, Leader of the Opposition, stated that
his party
fully
supported the UN route and he hoped a second resolution would be
possible:
“Although
it is not a prerequisite for future action, it is highly
desirable.” He stated that
the
“fundamental problem is not lack of time, but the attitude of
Saddam Hussein”.
He agreed
with Mr Blair that “if the international community backs away
from dealing
with Saddam
Hussein now, that will be seen as a green light by every rogue
state and
terrorist
group around the world”.
18.
Mr Charles
Kennedy, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, referred to the extent
of
public
anxiety about developments and “a sense that we seem to be
hastening into war
ahead of
the events”. He stated that the Government had “still to make a
credible case”,
and: “That
case, for any fair-minded person viewing it, has to be based on
credible
evidence,
which has not so far been forthcoming.”
19.
Mr Blair
responded that, after 12 years of trying to get disarmament,
resolution
1441
offered Saddam Hussein a final opportunity. That was “hardly
hastening into a
war”. It
was a response to Saddam Hussein’s “point blank” refusal to do what
the United
Nations had
asked. If, as Dr Blix had said, Saddam Hussein was “carrying
on in breach
of his
obligations, that was “credible evidence” that he was not
co-operating. The United
Nations had
decided that Saddam Hussein was in breach of its resolutions and he
had
“got to
produce the evidence that he is now co-operating fully – and he is
not doing so”.
20.
Mr Blair
added that the inspectors’ task was “not to engage in an elaborate
game
of hide and
seek”. That was the game Saddam Hussein had been playing for 12
years;
and it was
“unacceptable”. The US had chosen to go through the UN process,
“but that
process
should be a way of dealing with this issue once and for all, not of
kicking it into
the long
grass again and avoiding it altogether”.
21.
In response to
a question from Mr Donald Anderson, Chairman of the
Foreign
Affairs
Committee (FAC), about whether he feared that Russia, France or
China might
“unreasonably”
veto a second resolution, Mr Blair responded that he
was:
“… working
on the basis that people hold to both the spirit and the letter of
resolution
1441. The
process has integrity. Saddam has a final opportunity and he
must
co-operate
fully. If he does not, a fresh resolution will be issued. The logic
of that
will take
people along with us, especially when there are further inspectors’
reports
to come.”
22.
Asked by
Mr David Heath (Liberal Democrat) whether he disagreed with a
view that
war would
be a potent recruiting tool for terrorist groups, Mr Blair
responded: “If we are
taking
action where we are obviously and clearly enforcing the will of the
UN”, that view
was “not
right”.
183