Blair Urges Russia, France: Don't Let Saddam Off
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By Mike Peacock
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Tony Blair (news - web sites) warned Russia and France that their veto threat risked undermining the transatlantic alliance and said he was working feverishly to find common ground on the Security Council.
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"My concern is if countries talk about using a veto in all sets of circumstances, the message that sends to (Iraqi leader) Saddam (Hussein) is: 'you're off the hook,"' the prime minister told reporters in his Downing Street home after talks with Portuguese premier Jose Manuel Durao Barroso.
With France and Russia threatening a veto, the United States and Britain have delayed a U.N. Security Council vote on an ultimatum for Iraq (news - web sites) to disarm or face war.
"I hope we won't talk about vetoes in all sets of circumstances but rather we will try and find the common ground that allows a way through," Blair said.
"What we are trying to do in the Security Council now is to offer very clear ideas about what Iraq has to do in order to demonstrate it is prepared to disarm voluntarily."
Blair has cleared his diary to work the phones with fellow international leaders, trying to drum up support for a new resolution which is vital to his domestic political standing.
Britain is ready to modify the resolution, setting out a list of detailed disarmament moves for Iraq to fulfil by March 17 in order to avoid war.
Britain's ambassador to the U.N., Sir Jeremy Greenstock, also signaled that the March 17 deadline -- laid down by London and Washington in the draft resolution -- was a moveable feast.
"March 17 has nothing magic to it as the 17th but it is a clear indication...that time is short, it is no more than that," he told BBC Radio.
French President Jacques Chirac raised the stakes in Paris on Monday, saying France would veto a planned resolution setting Iraq that tight deadline to scrap weapons of mass destruction.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov also said Moscow would vote against the existing resolution. Several European Union (news - web sites) nations, including Germany, also oppose military action.
Blair warned his European Union partners they would suffer the consequences if they alienated the United States.
"Dividing Europe from America, an alliance that has served us well for over half a century, I think would be a very, very dangerous thing to do," Blair said. "That's why we have got to find that common ground that brings us back together again. I am working night and day in order to achieve that."
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