Following up Spain's hints earlier...
Jack Straw has acknowledged that Britain may have to abandon hopes of securing a new United Nations resolution before going to war with Iraq. At a news conference at the Foreign Office, he repeatedly refused to say whether the draft resolution tabled by Britain, the US and Spain would be put to a vote in the Security Council.
Earlier, his Spanish counterpart Ana Palacio openly accepted that the resolution may be withdrawn, citing the threat by President Jacques Chirac to wield the French veto "whatever the circumstances". The acceptance that the resolution may have to be dropped will have come as a blow to Tony Blair, who desperately needs a new UN mandate for war if he is to avoid a split in the Labour Party. Earlier, at Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Blair had assured Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith that he still intended to put the resolution to a vote in the Security Council. He even announced a series of six "benchmarks" against which Iraqi compliance with UN demands to disarm could be judged in a final attempt to win round the undecided council members. But just five hours later, Mr Straw refused to guarantee that there would be a vote on a new resolution before military action was launched. "What I guarantee is that we are working as hard as we possibly can to secure a second resolution," he said. "We are having to do so in circumstances in which one of the the permanent members of the Security Council has said, whatever the circumstances, they will veto a resolution, so that is not easy. He added that they were in a "very fast moving situation".
A UN showdown would have been nice, but it seems the talking really is over. BBC news this evening were predicting war by Monday, and the British military still set to go :). |