MoD Information

Iraq Action Must Have UN Backing

Sun, January 12, 2003

Source: Ananova News

The International Development Secretary says Britain should not take part in any military action against Iraq which is not authorised by the UN

The International Development Secretary says Britain should not take part in any military action against Iraq which is not authorised by the UN. Clare Short says the UK's "duty" is to act as a restraining influence on Washington.

She added that is was also to ensure that the crisis over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction was dealt with through the UN.

Ms Short told ITV's Jonathan Dimbleby programme: "The role of the UK in this historic and dangerous time is to try to keep the US with the UN process, to back up the authority of the UN and not divert from the UN route."

Asked if that meant Britain should not go along with any unilateral military action by the US, Ms Short responded: "That is the logic of the position."

She added: "I think all the people of Britain have a duty to keep our country firmly on the UN route, so that we stop the US going to war too early and keep the world united."

Ms Short's intervention comes amid growing signs of dissent within the Labour Party over Tony Blair's approach to the crisis.

Three Cabinet ministers are understood to have warned him he must do more to reassure concerned party members, as two surveys predict defections by grassroots activists if war goes ahead.

And senior backbencher Clive Soley, a former chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, says Mr Blair risks a repeat of the 1956 Suez campaign, when Sir Anthony Eden lost the premiership after taking Britain into war without public support.