The Hindu Tuesday, Jul 30, 2002
Jordan opposes action against Iraq By Hasan Suroor LONDON JULY 29. King Abdullah of Jordan, who met the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, here on Monday, rejected speculation that his country would back any U.S. military action in Iraq and accused the hardliners in Pentagon of being "fixated on Iraq''. His meeting with Mr. Blair took place amid growing opposition among Labour MPs, including some Cabinet ministers, to any British backing for an attack on Baghdad despite the Prime Minister's assertion last week that it was "not imminent''. But the Foreign Office Minister, Ben Bradshaw, fuelled speculation when he suggested that the `threat' from Iraq would not go away by simply ignoring it and brushed aside an opinion poll which showed that 51 per cent of Britons were opposed to a military option. King Abdullah said that in his talks with the U.S. President, George W. Bush, later this week he would warn that any attack on Iraq would open up a "Pandora's box'' in West Asia. He distanced himself from the U.S.-backed Iraqi dissidents who recently met in London to discuss the overthrow of the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein. The presence of his estranged uncle, Prince Hassan, at the meeting had prompted speculation that it signalled Jordanian Government's support for anti-Iraq moves. It was regarded as significant in the context of reports, which were later denied, that Jordan was willing to offer bases to U.S. to launch an attack on Iraq. ``Prince Hassan blundered into something he did not realise he was getting into, and we're all picking up the pieces,'' he told The Times. He warned that the hawks in the Bush administration, pressing for an attack on Iraq, posed a threat to American "strategic interests'' in West Asia. The international community, he said, was `united' in its opposition to any such action, and so was Jordan. "Ask our friends in China, in Moscow, in England, in Paris everybody will tell you that we have concerns about military actions against Iraq,'' he said. The situation in West Asia dominated his discussions with Mr. Blair with the two sides stressing the need to get Israel and the Palestinians back on the negotiating table. Their talks, however, were overshadowed by a fresh controversy over Iraq following reports that Government lawyers had advised against British participation in a military attack on Baghdad without a United Nations mandate. This seemed to contradict the Government's position that the 23 U.N. resolutions were sufficient justification for intervention. A former Defence Minister in the Blair Government, Peter Kilfoyle, meanwhile, warned of a major split in the Labour party if the Prime Minister backed an invasion of Iraq without proper authorisation. Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu
