Blair's 'frank' phone talk with Chirac

The Daily Telegraph ^ | March 14, 2003 | The Daily Telegraph

[MadIvan]

Prime Minister Tony Blair had a frank telephone exchange with French President Jacques Chirac today over his opposition to Britain's stance on Iraq.

The 10-minute conversation was said to be "good natured", but both leaders expressed their firmly-held views.

Earlier this week Downing Street accused France of injecting "poison" into the diplomatic process by threatening to veto any further UN resolution.

Mr Blair's spokesman said: "The Prime Minister spoke to President Chirac at President Chirac's request.

"President Chirac said he was willing to look at the tests the UK had put down in the United Nations but insisted there were no circumstances in which France would countenance any UN resolution which authorised or implied military action should the tests not be met. And he said he would not accept an ultimatum to Saddam.

"The Prime Minister said that without a credible threat that military action would be used to enforce the will of the United Nations, there would never be the necessary pressure on Saddam to disarm.

"The Prime Minister also pointed out that Resolution 1441 was clear. It gave Saddam a final opportunity and warned of serious consequences if he failed to comply. He had failed to comply yet again, as he had done with previous resolutions, as everyone accepted."

The unusually full account of the conversation reflected Britain's impatience with the French stance, which Downing Street believes scuppered a deal that only a few days ago could have been achieved at the UN.

The UK has proposed six tests for Saddam to pass to prove he has had a "strategic" change of mind about complying with 1441.

[MadIvan]

Frog bashing. Works every time its tried. Because France makes themselves worthy of being bashed.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[sirchtruth]

"President Chirac said he was willing to look at the tests the UK had put down in the United Nations but insisted there were no circumstances in which France would countenance any UN resolution which authorised or implied military action should the tests not be met. And he said he would not accept an ultimatum to Saddam.

America and Britain collectively should FART in his general direction!

[EternalVigilance]

Most Americans are in a mood to move from bashing Frogs to dissecting Frogs...

[areafiftyone]

[mallardx]

God Bless Tony Blair! And God Bless England! The campaign has begun! And we will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail!

[jacquej]

Given the aroma of some of that famous french cheese, I doubt they would notice.

[LuigiBasco]

My humble opinion of France.

[Post Toasties]

Spring's almost here. Anybody else up for some frog baseball?

[Dog]

If this delay by Chirac causes the loss of British or American lives......we should storm France!

[Robert_Paulson2]

literally laughing my a double s off...
LLMAO

[sirchtruth]

Given the aroma of some of that famous french cheese, I doubt they would notice.

With the Snoze Chiraq has, I tend to concur...

He is going to sink his country into the irrelevance of a crap quagmire.

[MadIvan]

If this delay by Chirac causes the loss of British or American lives......we should storm France!

That's guaranteed. The one chance we had to resolve this without war was if the world's leaders were willing to be united in their insistence that Saddam had to go. Having seen no hope whatsoever, Saddam might have bailed - and we did get reports that he was putting cash aside in Libya.

Because of the French and Germans, now it will take a war to remove Saddam - Saddam sees hope in drawing this out as long as he can and getting the anti-war people and anti-war countries to scream as loudly as possible.

The blood of the British and American soldiers who fall in Iraq is on the hands of the anti-war people, the French, the Germans and the Russians.

Regards, Ivan

[small voice in the wilderness]

LOL!! I think there's a medical condition known as "Alien Hand Syndrome", which causes the patient to literally not be able to control his hand movements. I think President Bush and Prime Minister Blair should come down with the more common malady known as "Alien Finger Syndrome".

[colorado tanker]

a frank telephone exchange

Resolution 1441? Don't you understand we never meant to enforce it? We only voted for it to sucker you into letting Blix's inspectors in and trapping you in the UN process! Now, Toneee, you must proceed without Security Council approval, an approach only 20% of your voters approve. So we lied, what did you expect, we're French, ho, ho, ho.

[MadIvan]

There was an encouraging poll on earlier - Sky News ran a poll about whether or not further diplomacy was worthwhile: people vote in those polls using their digital remote controls. 80% said it isn't worth it.

Regards, Ivan

[areafiftyone]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -- Like victims in a horror film, patients with a rare syndrome known as 'alien hand' feel disassociated from one of their own hands, insisting that the hand is 'possessed' by a force outside their control.

[aBootes]

I think that Chiraq no longer thinks he can stop the war; now he just wants to make it as painful as possible for the US/UK/Aussies. I dunno why anybody talks to him anymore.

[colorado tanker]

That poll is encouraging, Ivan. Here in the US, the UN fiasco and France's antics are generating a backlash resulting in support for Bush acting with or without the UN. Sounds as if that's happening in Britain, too.

[thinktwice]

"Such are our customs. We do not devour, we gnaw; we do not exterminate, we clutch."

Victor Hugo, Les Miserables, Signet Classic pb (pg 598).