3.8 |
Development of UK strategy and options, 8 to 20 March
2003
of those
were “a short time away from having a serviceable nuclear
weapon”,
and that
activity was increasing, not diminishing; and
•
the
possibility of terrorist groups obtaining and using weapons of
mass
destruction,
including a “radiological bomb”.
918.
Mr Blair
stated that tyrannical regimes with weapons of mass destruction
and
terrorist
groups had very different motives and different origins and he
accepted “fully”
that the
association between the two was:
“… loose –
but it is hardening. The possibility of the two coming together –
of
terrorist
groups in possession of weapons of mass destruction or even of a
so-called
dirty
radiological bomb – is now in my judgement, a real and present
danger to
Britain and
its national security.”
919.
Addressing the
effects of chemical and biological agents, Mr Blair stated
that Iraq
was “not
the only part of this threat”. But it was “the test of whether we
treat the threat
seriously”.
Mr Blair added that, faced with the threat:
“… the
world should unite. The UN should be the focus both of diplomacy
and of
action.
That is what [resolution] 1441 said … to break it now, and to will
the ends
but not the
means, would do more damage in the long term to the UN than
any
other
single course that we could pursue. To fall back into the lassitude
of the last
12 years;
to talk, to discuss, to debate but never to act; to declare our
will but not
to enforce
it; and to continue with strong language but with weak intentions –
that
is the
worst course imaginable. If we pursue that course, when the threat
returns,
from Iraq
or elsewhere, who will then believe us? What price our credibility
with
the next tyrant?”
“… there
will in any event be no sound future for the United Nations – no
guarantee
against the
repetition of these events – unless we recognise the urgent need
for a
political
agenda we can unite upon.
“What we
have witnessed here is the consequence of Europe and the United
States
dividing
from each other … the paralysis of the UN has been born out of the
division
that there
is.”
921.
Mr Blair
stated that there was a risk of the world being divided into rival
poles of
power “with
the US and its allies in one corner and France, Germany, Russia and
their
allies in
the other”. That would be “profoundly dangerous”. There was
“resentment of
US dominance”
and “fear of US unilateralism”.
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