Blair risks losing job over Iraq

Tension spreads as Iraq crisis divides EU
8 countries sign letter backing white house
Compiled by Daily Star staff

Eight European nations threw their support behind US war plans for Iraq on Thursday, leaving Europe divided as the United States warned there were “weeks, not months” left to find a diplomatic solution.
In apparent backing of US insistence that opposition from heavyweights France and Germany was a legacy of the “old Europe,” the eight distanced themselves from Paris and Berlin to give a boost to Washington’s campaign.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Spanish counterpart Jose Maria Aznar led the eight in signing an open letter, published in newspapers across the continent, calling for a tough line against Saddam.
Blair met with Aznar in Madrid Thursday. Earlier in the day he said he was convinced the international community could be unified over Iraq but warned against following an “arbitrary timeline.”
“I think that it is still possible (to get), and I would like to get, everyone into the same place,” he said when asked about the chances of getting a single international view on efforts to disarm Baghdad.
Blair, speaking to reporters on a flight to Madrid for a stopover before flying to the United States for a meeting with President George W. Bush, said the world should stick to the United Nations route and implied that he would be pushing Bush to wait for a second UN resolution. The British prime minister’s comments were made as his defense secretary announced the mobilization of up to 6,000 military reservists, four times the number previously announced.
In a written statement to the House of Commons, Geoff Hoon said notices would be sent “over the coming weeks.”
Bush was also speaking in “weeks, not months.”
“For the sake of peace, this issue must be resolved,” he said after meeting with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
Across the Potomac River from Washington, Vice-President Dick Cheney continued the administration’s tough talk, seeking to calm many Americans’ fears about a new military conflict distracting US officials from the anti-terror campaign.
“We will not permit a brutal dictator with ties to terror and a record of reckless aggression to dominate the Middle East and threaten the United States of America,” Cheney said in a speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Bush was scheduled to meet later with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, who is trying to rally nations behind a plan to offer Iraqi President Saddam Hussein exile.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday the United States could play a role in finding Saddam a haven.
“That certainly would be one way to avoid war,” he said.
Bush said he was open to the idea. “Should he choose to leave the country, along with other henchmen who have tortured … Iraqi people, we will welcome that, of course,” he said.
He added, however, that the US would continue to insist that Iraq disarm, regardless of who governs the nation.
Berlusconi said he came to Washington to help Bush build support against Saddam. Seated with Bush in the Oval Office, Berlusconi said: “I’m here to convince my friend President Bush that this is in the interest of everybody.”
The Italian prime minister was one of the eight European signatories to the open letter, which read in part: “We must remain united in insisting that (Iraq) is disarmed. The solidarity, cohesion and determination of the international community are our best hope of achieving this peacefully.
“The real bond between the United States and Europe is the values we share … Our strength lies in unity,” said the letter signed by Blair, Aznar, Berlusconi and the leaders of Portugal, Hungary, Poland, Denmark and the Czech Republic.
In Berlin, officials insisted it was “plain wrong” to describe Germany as isolated, while France also sought to downplay differences with its neighbors .
French President Jacques Chirac’s spokesman said the letter contained “many things that France could have signed on to or even written, especially when it concerns the disarmament of Iraq.” French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said: “Let us not set one Europe against another, when we are all defending the same principles: firmness toward Iraq and at the same time an effort to find a solution to the crisis in the framework of the United Nations.”
Leaders of Syria and France discussed ways Thursday to coordinate their positions on the UN Security Council to avert a war on Iraq, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported.
Syrian President Bashar Assad received a telephone call from his French counterpart in which the agency said they sought ways to “coordinate at the Security Council in the next stage to prevent the circumstances from reaching the point that may lead to war on Iraq.”
Russia, which wields veto power in the UN Security Council, warned that the aim of the United Nations was to disarm Iraq and not oust Saddam.
“The objective on Iraq is stated in the Security Council resolution ­ they should not have arms of mass destruction nor the means to produce them. This is the main problem,” Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said during a visit to Sofia. “Some countries link the issue of weapons of mass destruction to a regime change in Iraq. But this goes against the resolution.”
In Greece, which has joined France and Germany in criticizing US war plans, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said the Greek EU presidency had not even been informed in advance about the letter.
“We were not invited to sign that letter,” the spokesman said, while Prime Minister Costas Simitis said the letter did not help attempts to create a common EU position on the crisis.
The European Parliament passed a resolution by a vote of 287-209 opposing any unilateral military action against Iraq.
Syrian state media described Bush’s State of the Union address this week as a “declaration of war.” In Baghdad, one newspaper dismissed it as a “Hollywood commotion.” Saddam vowed to break America’s neck.
Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s former president and a Nobel peace laureate, said the United States did not care for human beings and that Bush was plunging the world into a “holocaust.” He also described Blair as “the foreign minister of the United States. He is no longer prime minister of Britain.”
In Lebanon, Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud called Thursday for an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers to discuss “escalating threats of an attack against Iraq.”
He said he has contacted counterparts to discuss details and asked the Arab League to issue invitations. ­

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