Blair and Bush warn Europe to prepare for war
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Your support makes all the difference.European divisions with America and Britain over whether to go to war in Iraq will be painfully exposed at the United Nations Security Council in New York today.
France and Germany were told yesterday to "show backbone and courage" by President George Bush, while Tony Blair fired a separate broadside demanding they leave open the option of military action.
Diplomats said Britain and America will make a push for military action – once Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, presents his report on Iraq. The meeting will be attended by foreign ministers of the 15 members of the council including Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State.
Mr Bush said in Florida yesterday that "when it's all said and done, free nations will not allow the United Nations to fade into history as an ineffective, irrelevant debating society".
In a toughly worded letter to EU leaders ahead of an emergency summit in Brussels on Monday, Mr Blair said Saddam Hussein was already in "material breach" of UN resolution 1441.
The message to France and Germany was unmistakable: President Saddam's position makes him liable for "serious consequences" – a code for war. In his letter, Mr Blair argued that "while we all of course regard military action as a last resort, we must make clear that no member state rules it out if needed to uphold the authority of the [UN] Security Council."
Such a pledge is unlikely to find favour with Gerhard Schröder, the German Chancellor, who has repeatedly excluded the possibility of taking part in military action against Iraq. Yesterday Mr Blair failed to resolve his differences with Mr Schröder during a telephone conversation. Downing Street said: "There's a shared objective but a difference of view in how we get there."
The Prime Minister's move reflected his private fears that the EU might water down its previous stance on Iraq on Monday following the campaign of opposition to a war by France and Germany. He believes that such a "signal of weakness" would only give comfort to President Saddam.
The EU summit will be attended by Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, who will address the 15 EU leaders. A request from Mr Blair for an invitation to be extended to leaders of 10 nations that will join the EU next year was rebuffed. The letter calls for the 10, many of which take a pro-American line on Iraq, to be present "given the interest they also have engaged in this debate".
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