Replies

Get the spin right I know you are above spinning falsehoods on this matter.... now again from Blairs own mouth about the UN.......

QUESTION:

I wonder if I could ask you a bit about the politics of all this, because you have told us you want to secure not just the UN resolution on Oil for Food, which I think everyone is agreed will go through, but a UN resolution on the political structure of Iraq after any conflict.

Now the French, the Germans, the Russians have all said that they oppose that plan as you have suggested, that they want a UN mandate, they don't just want UN involvement, and we also of course have a situation in northern Iraq and the position of the Kurds. So how are you going to build a political framework? And secondly can you guarantee that the people in northern Iraq will have the same degree of autonomy that they currently enjoy in any post-war settlement?

PRIME MINISTER:

Just on the latter point, obviously one of the extraordinary things that has happened in Iraq over the past few years, only as a result of the British and American pilots policing the No Fly Zone, is that the autonomy people have gained in northern Iraq has allowed them to live a far better life. For example the child mortality rates I was explaining to you, I specifically said were in the centre and south of Iraq, because in the north of Iraq child mortality has been falling, and has been falling because they have got greater freedom from Saddam. So without going into the details of what any post-Saddam Iraq might look like at the present time, we would obviously not want to give up the considerable gains that people in the north have made.

Secondly in relation to the UN, there are two issues here. The first is in respect of humanitarian assistance we need a resolution through on that and I am confident that we should be able to secure that.

There is going to be a debate about the UN resolution that then governs the post-Saddam civil administration in Iraq. We are quite clear that any such administration has to be endorsed by the United Nations, it is important, and that is exactly what we said at the summit in the Azores. Now the details of that we will discuss with allies within the UN and with others.

There may be certain diplomatic difficulties but I think in the end people will come together and realise that it is important that any post-Saddam Iraqi government has the broadest possible representation, is respectful of human rights, is careful to preserve the territorial integrity of Iraq, and the important thing after all the diplomatic divisions that there have been is that the international community comes back together, and I hope that it will.http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page3347.asp

Here is the Prime Minister's own words from the post you put up:

We are quite clear that any such administration has to be endorsed by the United Nations, it is important, and that is exactly what we said at the summit in the Azores. Now the details of that we will discuss with allies within the UN and with others.

Your disconnect is coming here - endorsed does NOT equal that the adminstration is UN run. In an ideal world we would not even be talking to the UN at all. But you know what, tough, this is the real world, and Blair has to be able to say he made the attempt to talk to the UN. He is also saying this in a context in which he knows that the French will shoot down anything that is proposed.

Your fears are misplaced and far too literal. Again, you are simply not subtle enough to grasp what is going on.

Ivan