The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
Council,
which there was not; and if there was an unreasonable veto from one
country,
when three
Permanent Members were opposed to his policy – Mr Blair
replied:
“…
resolution 1441 … stated in terms … that if Iraq continued in
material breach,
defined as
not co-operating fully, immediately and unconditionally,
serious
consequences
would follow. All we are asking for in the second resolution is
the
clear
ultimatum that if Saddam continues to fail to co-operate, force
would be used.
The French
position is that France will vote no, whatever the circumstances.
Those
are not my
words, but those of the French President. I find it sad that at
this point in
time he
cannot support us in the position we have set out, which is the
only sure way
to disarm
Saddam.”
914.
Addressing the
conclusion which “any tyrannical regime” might take from
the
“world’s
diplomatic dance with Saddam Hussein” over the previous 12 years,
Mr Blair
stated that
such a conclusion would be:
“That our
capacity to pass firm resolutions was only matched by our
feebleness
in
implementing them. That is why this indulgence has to stop –
because it is
dangerous:
dangerous if such regimes disbelieve us; dangerous if they think
they
can use our
weakness … and dangerous because one day they will mistake
our
innate
revulsion against war for permanent incapacity, when in fact, if
pushed to the
limit, we
will act. But when we act, after years of pretence, the action will
have to be
harder,
bigger, more total in its impact. It is true that Iraq is not the
only country with
weapons of
mass destruction, but … to back away from this confrontation now,
and
future
conflicts will be infinitely worse and more devastating in their
effects.
“… any fair
observer does not really dispute that Iraq is in breach of
resolution 1441
or that it
implies action in such circumstances. The real problem is that,
underneath,
people
dispute that Iraq is a threat, dispute the link between terrorism
and weapons
of mass
destruction, and dispute, in other words, the whole basis of our
assertion
that the
two together constitute a fundamental assault on our way of
life.”
915.
Arguing that
the time had come to act, Mr Blair set out why he believed, in
the
context of
“an ever more interdependent” world where the threat was “chaos
and
disorder”,
Iraq posed a threat that was “so serious and why we must tackle
it”.
916.
In his view,
there were:
“… two
begetters of chaos: tyrannical regimes with weapons of mass
destruction
and extreme
terrorist groups who profess a perverted and false sense of
Islam.”
917.
Mr Blair
set out his concerns about:
•
proliferators
of nuclear equipment or expertise;
•
“dictatorships
with highly repressive regimes” who were “desperately trying
to
acquire”
chemical, biological or “particularly, nuclear weapons capability”;
some
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