Blair says U.S. should seek 2nd Iraq resolution
Washington - U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair said the Bush administration should seek another resolution at the United Nations to approve any military action against Iraq, in a shift toward European demands in the confrontation.
It's right that we go for a second resolution,'' Blair said in an interview on Cable News Network. That's the way of saying this is an issue the international community isn't going to duck.''
President George W. Bush, who is holding talks today with Blair at the White House, has said the U.S. would be prepared within weeks to use force to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. Bush has also said a new resolution isn't needed to justify an attack.
Blair is Bush's strongest ally against Iraq and was one of eight European leaders, including Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who wrote a letter this week calling for unity with the U.S. against Saddam Hussein. That statement was aimed at France and Germany, which have opposed Bush's policy.
The U.K. has joined the U.S. in a military buildup in the Gulf region, and the two countries will have about 215,000 troops in the area ready for a military strike by mid-February.
Blair had urged Bush to seek the first UN resolution against Iraq that cleared the way for weapons inspections and demanded that the country disarm. The Security Council unanimously passed that resolution on Nov. 8.
Oil Falls
Oil fell for the first time in four days on expectations that Blair will press Bush to give weapons inspectors more time to find chemical, biological and nuclear arms or development efforts.
Crude oil for March delivery was down 23 cents, or 0.7 percent, at $33.62 a barrel as of 12:20 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
War concern, and a strike in Venezuela, have spurred a 24 percent rally in oil prices since early December.
Blair, said if the Iraqis ``carry on as they are now, they're in breach'' of UN mandates. At the same time, the British leader said UN weapons inspectors, now numbering more than 100 on the ground in Iraq, should be given more time to finish their work.
Not Cooperating
``It's absolutely clear'' the Iraqis are not giving full cooperation to UN weapons inspectors, Blair said, echoing a contention made to the Security Council this week by the top arms inspector, Hans Blix.
Blair's comments came after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said a majority of Security Council members want arms inspections to continue before considering military action.
Annan, answering a reporter's question, acknowledged yesterday that ``the sense of'' a Security Council meeting was that at least 11 of the 15 governments want the search for any banned Iraqi weapons to continue before they will approve the use of military force.
The question of how to proceed against Iraq has produced a rift in Europe, with France and Germany against using military force, and Russia skeptical of Bush's stance.
Bush said he prefers to work with allies and through the UN.
Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, holder of the European Union's rotating presidency, denounced the published letter backing Bush written by the eight European leaders, saying it ``creates problems because it happened without the necessary communication.''
Summit Call
Simitis said he is prepared to call a special European Union summit to take up the Iraq issue. The European Parliament yesterday passed a resolution opposing military action. The body said a ``a pre-emptive strike would not be in accordance with international law'' and may lead to a deeper Middle East crisis.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell will address the Security Council Feb. 5 to provide intelligence that the U.S. says shows Hussein is hiding weapons of mass destruction.
An extension of diplomacy on Iraq is also sought by Blair's critics at home, including members of his own Labour Party.
Support for Blair's Labour government fell three points this month, to 36 percent, the lowest in more than two years, a YouGov poll published in the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph newspaper showed.
Blair didn't explicitly back Bush's declaration in his State of the Union address that Hussein ``aids and protects'' al-Qaeda terrorists and may secretly supply them with a mass-destruction weapon. The British leader said he would wait for Powell to disclose evidence at the UN.
``I certainly have no doubt, on a broad level, these issues of international terrorism and weapons of mass destruction are linked,'' Blair told CNN. -- Bloomberg News