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| Sunday, 02 March 2003 |
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Blair says would push to disarm Iraq even without US LONDON, Saturday (Reuters) British Prime Minister Tony Blair, reeling from a parliamentary revolt this week, said in remarks published on Saturday he was "truly committed" to disarming Iraq, "irrespective of the position of America". "If the Americans were not doing this, I would be pressuring them to do so," he said in an interview with Britain's Guardian newspaper. Blair's hawkish stance on Iraq has been heavily criticised by many members of his own Labour party and sections of the British public, many of whom accuse him of behaving like U.S. President George W. Bush's lapdog. "It's worse than you think. I believe in it. I am truly committed to dealing with this, irrespective of the position of America," he said. Britain is co-sponsoring a new U.N. resolution with the United States and Spain which could trigger war against Iraq if it does not come clean on suspected weapons of mass destruction. Blair rejected calls for more U.N. weapons inspections as a means to disarm Saddam. "It's all very well to say put in more inspections, but it's a pointless exercise," he said. Blair on Friday dismissed Iraq's agreement to destroy its al-Samoud 2 missiles, which exceed U.N.-set firing range limits, and accused Saddam of playing games. Blair, whose popularity ratings at home have plummeted, suffered his biggest parliamentary rebellion on Wednesday, when 122 of his own party voted against his pro-U.S. stance on Iraq. Polls show most Britons are opposed to any war without a new U.N. resolution. "I've never claimed to have a monopoly on wisdom, but one thing I've learned in this job is you should always try to do the right thing, not the easy thing," Blair told the Guardian. "Let the day-to-day judgments come and go: be prepared to be judged by history." In recent public comments, Blair has drawn similarities between today's anti-war protesters and appeasers in the 1930s. "When people decided not to confront fascism, they were doing the popular thing, they were doing it for good reasons and they were good people...but they made the wrong decision," he told the paper. |
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