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Blair to Bush 'Taliban first, Iraq second'
Apr 3 2003
By Tom Kelly, PA News, in New York
Tony Blair had to persuade George Bush to tackle the Taliban
before attacking Iraq in the weeks after September 11, the
former British Ambassador to America said today.
The United States President came under pressure from hawks
within his administration to topple Saddam Hussein in the first
crisis meeting at Camp David after the 2001 terror strikes in
New York and Washington.
But Sir Christopher Meyer said that when the Prime Minister
met Mr Bush in the Oval Office a few days later he urged him to
hit al Qaida and Afghanistan's Taliban regime first.
"Tony Blair's view was, 'whatever you're going to do about
Iraq, you should concentrate on the job at hand and the job at
hand was get al Qaida, give the Taliban an ultimatum'."
After listening to the appeal, the President took Mr Blair aside
and promised he would keep Iraq "for another day," Sir
Christopher, who recently left his post in Washington, told a
documentary to be shown on America's PBS network tonight.
Sir Christopher said after the Taliban was defeated and Iraq
became the main issue, the Prime Minister advised Mr Bush to
exhaust options at the United Nations and offered himself as
envoy to sell European leaders on US policy.
"Blair said, 'if you want to do this you can do this on your own,
you have the military strength to go into Iraq and do it, but our
advice to you is even a great super power like the US needs to
do this with partners and allies'."
When Mr Bush went public with the concept of a pre-emptive
strike against Saddam it alarmed a many people around the
world, Sir Christopher said.
"Taken literally, these words meant a rampaging hyperpower
who'll whiz around the world whacking people left, right and
centre whenever it sees its security interests threatened."
The documentary, entitled Blair's War, depicts the Prime
Minister's increasingly desperate attempt to maintain the
Western alliance over Iraq in the lead up to war.
Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Britain's Ambassador to the UN, told the
programme that diplomats erred by failing to address their
divisions following the Security Council's first resolution on
Iraq.
"They were differences which we knew about, looking back, I
think that was a mistake of diplomacy that we didn't try and
deal with those nuances that turned in to ravines by the end
of the game."
Sir Christopher said Britain and US still expected France
ultimately to support the war, and it was a major shock when
the French foreign minister told the UN in January that he saw
no reason for military action.
"I happened to see Colin Powell pretty soon after the meeting
on January 20th with his deputy Richard Armitage and ... their
remarks were bordering on the unprintable," Sir Christopher
said. |
