British official says inspectors top goal in Iraq
Statement breaks ranks with U.S.
By Kate Kelland
Reuters
Published August 23, 2002
LONDON -- Setting itself apart from its ally the United States, Britain on Thursday said its main aim in Iraq was the return of weapons inspectors rather than the "regime change" sought by Washington.
In comments that underlined differences between President Bush and London, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the main threat was from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's suspected capability with weapons of mass destruction.
"What everybody is concerned about . . . is particularly the threat that Saddam Hussein poses from both his capability and his record to the security of the region and the security of the world," Straw told BBC radio.
"The best way of trying to isolate and reduce that threat is by the introduction of weapons inspections," he said. "The crucial issue here is weapons inspectors."
Bush by contrast has made the ousting of Hussein a top priority, saying the Iraqi leader is developing weapons of mass destruction and must be stopped before he can use them against the United States and its allies or share them with terrorist groups.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has signaled he would back U.S.-led military action but faces growing opposition from members of his own left-of-center Labor Party, church leaders and, according to some reports, members of his Cabinet.
Challenged on whether there was any international coalition that would back military action against Iraq, Straw said: "What there is, is an overwhelming international consensus against what Saddam Hussein has been doing and failing to do in Iraq."
Bush said Wednesday that he would continue to consult with his allies on the issue of Iraq but repeated his view that "regime change is in the interests of the world."
Straw said Britain would be happy if Hussein were to be removed but stressed: "The key part of our approach is to get the weapons inspectors back."
"We have to say military action remains an option . . . because of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. But if there is another way of dealing with that threat, then plainly the case for military action recedes," he said.
Menzies Campbell, foreign affairs spokesman for the opposition Liberal Democrats, said Straw's comments were evidence of a clear rift between the trans-Atlantic allies.
"The foreign secretary's remarks place Britain in a quite different position from the hawks in the Bush administration," he said.
"The UK government should now be leading the charge to compel Saddam Hussein to readmit the UN inspectors with full, unfettered and open access to every installation they wish," Campbell said.
But a spokesman for the Foreign Office said it was wrong to suggest the foreign secretary's comments showed a difference in approach.
"The U.S. and other members of the [UN] Security Council have called on numerous occasions for the reintroduction of weapons inspections in Iraq," the spokesman said. "And the U.S. has made clear, like us, that no decision has been taken to launch military action."
Hussein has made various overtures to the United Nations in recent weeks about allowing teams of UN arms inspectors to return for the first time since they left four years ago.
Last week Iraq asked the UN for further technical talks in Baghdad before allowing inspectors back in, but so far there has been no formal UN response.
The weapons experts, who went into Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf war, inspected and destroyed weapons before leaving in December 1998 on the eve of a U.S.-British bombing raid.
