The "show" continues

British Prime Minister Tony Blair calls emergency cabinet meeting


Canadian Press


Monday, March 17, 2003


LONDON (AP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair has called an emergency cabinet meeting on the crisis in Iraq, his office said Monday.

Blair arrived home Sunday night after a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush on the mid-Atlantic Azores Islands. The leaders gave the United Nations a 24-hour deadline to endorse the use of force to compel Iraq's immediate disarmament.

The prime minister has been struggling to contain a rebellion within his governing Labour Party by legislators opposed to military action that lacks UN backing. One cabinet minister - International Development Secretary Clare Short - has threatened to resign and the press has reported other ministers may be preparing to do the same.

The meeting was scheduled for 4 p.m. local time, Blair's office said.

The prime minister also planned to speak to Bush by phone around midday, and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was scheduled to make a statement to the House of Commons at 7 p.m., said Blair's office.

The announcements came as preparations for a possible war against Iraq appeared to be intensifying. Bush said Sunday that Monday would be ``a moment of truth for the world.''

A Foreign Office minister said Monday that Britain would make a decision soon on military action against Iraq, which could lead to Saddam Hussein's removal from power.

``We're now in a very serious situation and decisions on military action will have to be taken shortly,'' Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. ``If it's clear that Saddam is not going to disarm, (and) I think we're increasingly coming to that conclusion, it may well then be necessary to remove Saddam Hussein.''

O'Brien said a UN resolution was still achievable, despite France's threat to veto a resolution authorizing war.

``It's possible that we could get some movement at the Security Council, where we're hoping that the French will recognize that their threat of veto has frustrated the whole diplomatic process,'' O'Brien said.

He urged President Jacques Chirac to emulate his predecessor, the late Francois Mitterrand, who gave last-minute backing to the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

``I hope Chirac will have the statesmanship of Mitterrand. The damage done by this threat of a French veto to the whole diplomatic process has been enormous,'' O'Brien said.

Britain advised all of its citizens except diplomatic staff to leave Kuwait as soon as possible. It said it feared Britons were at risk from chemical and biological attacks by Iraq or by terrorists.

Earlier Monday, a leading rebel in Blair's Labour Party warned that war against Iraq without UN backing would be a ``very serious mistake.''

Chris Smith, a former member of Blair's cabinet, suggested a large number of Labour legislators would rebel against the government in any vote on the Iraq crisis. One cabinet member, International Development Secretary Clare Short, has already threatened to resign if Britain goes to war without UN backing.

``The idea of going to war in the first place when the weapons inspection process has quite clearly not come to a conclusion ... has always worried me,'' Smith told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. ``To do this without the explicit sanction of the United Nations resolution seems to me to be a very serious mistake.''

``I would hope even at this very much 11th-hour that we might step back from this,'' Smith said.