BRITAIN: Senior Labour MPs last night detected a growing and fundamental divide between London and Washington over military action against Iraq.
However, confusion and doubt remained as the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, again appeared to say war could be averted, while also insisting Britain has not ruled out the possibility that military action might be necessary.
Speaking in response to US Vice President Dick Cheney's strongest yet call-to-arms over Iraq, Mr Straw again stressed the British government's desire to see UN weapons inspectors re-admitted to Iraq and its adherence to the existing nine UN resolutions covering weapons inspections and possible military action.
Mr Cheney's speech on Monday night was widely seen as a direct rebuke to British ministers urging weapons inspection as the priority of British foreign policy rather than the "regime change" sought by President Bush. And Mr Straw appeared to confirm that divergence, while insisting his comments did not put him at odds with Mr Cheney.
The Labour chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr Donald Anderson, suggested Mr Straw's comments did indeed confirm a "very fundamental" divide between Britain and the US, with his acknowledgement that President Saddam Hussein's agreement to comply with weapons inspections would remove the breach of the existing UN mandate and prove "a positive development".
However, during an interview with the BBC, Mr Straw allowed that the simple re-admission of inspectors might not suffice, and that they might report either that they had not been allowed unrestricted access as demanded, or alternatively that a threat remained. Mr Straw said he did not believe the US considered military action the "option of choice" either.
However, he again said "we do not rule out the possibility that military action might be necessary" and said the US was "prudent" not to do so.
The goal of British and US policy, he said, was to "reduce and then eliminate" the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction.
Egypt's stark warning to the US that not a single Arab country wanted war underlined the mounting problems facing the US in gathering an international coalition for military action, and again raised the pressure on Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The Liberal Democrats yesterday warned that repeated assertions of the threat posed by Iraq would not be enough if public opinion was to be persuaded.