Posted on 07/29/2002 5:30:20 PM PDT by Pokey78
KING ABDULLAH of Jordan told Tony Blair yesterday that dialogue was the only way to deal with Iraq, and that any attack on that country would have a devastating effect on the region.
After the frank exchange of views at Downing Street, the Prime Minister can have been left in no doubt of the King’s opinion that progress in the Middle East would be affected by any action the West might take against President Saddam Hussein. Downing Street described the meeting as positive and said that Mr Blair’s position on Iraq was unchanged. The Government’s stance was that no decision had been made on military action, but Saddam must comply with UN resolutions. The King, who takes his anti-war message to President Bush tomorrow, urged Mr Blair to play his part in producing the Middle East action plan he described in his interview in The Times yesterday. A spokesman for the King said: “His Majesty stressed the need to intensify and co-ordinate the efforts of the international community . . . to develop a clear plan with a timetable in order to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian territories. “The lack of food and medicine due to the curfews and embargoes enforced by the Israeli Government, in addition to the demolition of homes and of the Palestinian infrastructure, has placed the Palestinian people in a critical situation and is a major impediment to peace.” On Iraq, King Abdullah “reiterated Jordan’s firm belief that dialogue based on UN Security Council resolutions is the only way to defuse the situation”. The King added that military action against Iraq would have devastating effects. The talks are taking place amid growing unease on the Labour back benches about a possible military strike. Mr Blair’s official spokesman said of his meeting with King Abdullah: “It was a very friendly and positive meeting, as always. The Prime Minister and the King have a very good relationship. “It was a wide-ranging discussion, focused on the Middle East and on the different issues you would expect, chiefly on how we can make progress on the Middle East peace process. Obviously, Iraq was one of the subjects that would have come up.” The spokesman said that the promised dossier on Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction had not been published because “people might make a linkage and think action was imminent”. Downing Street refused to comment on reports that Mr Blair had been told by lawyers that any participation in an invasion of Iraq would be illegal without a new UN mandate. Tam Dalyell, the veteran Labour backbencher, warned Mr Blair that military action could mean committing Britain to an armed presence in the area for decades. In a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Dalyell asked: “Is it contemplated occupying a resentful Iraq — and having been there in 1994 and 1998, I think it will be resentful — for my expected lifetime and possibly yours?” Mr Dalyell urged the Prime Minister to heed the advice of Field Marshal Lord Bramall, the former Chief of the Defence Staff, who used a letter to The Times yesterday to say that although the US has the military might to topple Saddam, by doing so it might “pour petrol on the flames” of the troubled Middle East.
Then, someone had better start talking very fast to that Iraqui army building on the Kuwati border.
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