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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group

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To: BigBull who wrote (65908)	1/14/2003 3:24:05 AM
From: BigBull	Read Replies (4) of 281500

Here's a BBC account of Tony Blair's press conference for those who are interested. The good thing about this link is that it contains a video/audio link to the whole press conference, so that those who haven't seen it in it's entirety may do so. I was actually pretty surprised at how confident Blair was in some of the statements he made wrt Iraq having WMD's. Didn't bat an eye. Monday, 13 January, 2003, 19:02 GMT Blair issues fresh Iraq warning news.bbc.co.uk Tony Blair says Saddam Hussein will be disarmed of weapons of mass destruction - with or without a second United Nations resolution. The warning came as the UK prime minister insisted the world had to send a message that trade in chemical and biological weapons would not be tolerated. There is a direct threat to British national security in the trade in chemical, biological and nuclear weapons Mr Blair told his monthly televised news conference he was "quite sure" Iraq has such weapons and that there was the evidence to prove it. Those weapons posed a "direct threat to British national security", he said. It was only a matter of time before the problems of weapons of mass destruction came together, he said. Mr Blair told how he received information every day of states trying to get hold of weapons of mass destruction. Mr Blair was speaking after cabinet minister Clare Short's plea for the British public to make sure the US does not act without United Nations authority. Ms Short does not want the UK to join any unilateral American military action against Iraq. The prime minister said he understood public concerns about possible war but argued most people would back action if Iraq defied the UN. He dismissed any suggestion of cabinet splits as "nonsense". He said his preference and expectation was for a fresh UN resolution backing military action if Iraq was deemed to have breached UN rules. But if any country put an "unreasonable or unilateral" block on such resolution, "we have said we can't be in a position where we are confined in that way". "However, I do not believe as a matter of fact that will happen." Mr Blair outlined his confidence in the weapons inspections team and said things would be clearer when the inspectors reported on 27 January. But he said Iraq had last month made a "false declaration" about its weapons programmes. Meanwhile, a senior US official has bluntly warned Iraq that if it does not surrender weapons of mass destruction it will face military action. The head of the US Defense Department policy board, Richard Perle, told BBC News that United Nations inspectors currently scouring Iraq had no chance of finding weapons because they had been hidden. Those words will increase unease among Labour backbenchers already worried about the prospect of war.

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