----- Original Message ----- From: Miroslav Antic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: BALKAN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; SIEM NEWS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: NATO <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2001 3:24 AM Subject: Stability of world at risk, warns Blair [STOPNATO.ORG.UK] STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Build a marketing database and send targeted HTML and text e-mail newsletters to your customers with List Builder. http://www.listbuilder.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/22-2-19101-0-44-39.html Stability of world at risk, warns Blair CATHERINE MacLEOD Tony Blair yesterday launched a blistering attack on the anti-Europeans in a part of the Conservative party who would risk "the stability of the world" if they forced the UK to choose between between the European Union or the United States. Insisting that the only people to benefit from the US and Europe pulling apart were "bad people", the prime minister raised the stakes in his battle to position the UK as the bridge between the US and the EU. As the prime minister and his wife Cherie left London for a transatlantic trip to Canada and Washington, Mr Blair discounted any critics claiming his pro-Europe credentials would undermine Britain's relationship with the new Bush presidency. He said: "I have a very clear view which is that it is a disastrous misjudgment either to push the EU or America apart or to try and tell Britain in terms of our own political scene here that we should choose between America and Britain." And in language which will certainly impress any Americans harbouring doubts over the UK's commitment, and a shot across the bows of the Tories who have questioned the prime minister's Atlantic agenda, Mr Blair explained his determination to cement the UK relationship with the new regime in the US. He said: " It is essential for the stability of the world that the Americans and Europeans have a common understanding and, sure there will be differences that arise from time to time on trade and how we handle some of these defence questions, but what unites us is formidably more important than what divides us." Setting out his intention to stand four square beside the Americans on the international stage, the prime minister said: "The only people who rejoice when Europe and America don't get on together are bad people, to put it in blunt terms. "What will the Saddam Husseins of this world think if they can pull us apart on these issues. Or dictators in different parts of the world, or organised criminal gangs which have got tremendous power now, or people trying to develop nuclear weapons which they shouldn't be. "I think that it would be tragic, particularly if the obsession of anti-Europeanism in a part of the Conservative Party today is then used as a force to try and say: 'Look, really Britain has got a choice here. It either is a partner in the European Union or it is a big buddy of the United States, but it had better choose between those two'. "It is so important that Britain can help Europeans understand America and Americans understand Europe. We have in that sense a very, very important role to play, and I think we should play that role without hesitation and we should play it with confidence, and I think it is a big mistake for people to try and block that or worse pull us part. I really do. I believe that so strongly." Mr Blair did not waver on the UK/US offensive on Iraq. Defending their actions as "absolutely essential", he told journalists: "I can never understand how people can look at the history of Saddam and come to any other conclusion other than that he is an extremely dangerous man, probably the most dangerous ruler at the present time anywhere in the world, and if he is allowed to, will visit even more terror on his own people and would threaten the external world as well." The prime minister was sympathetic to the plight of the Iraqi people but made it clear that their lives were not likely to improve until Saddam was removed. "I feel really sorry for the Iraqi people. I feel sorry for them being under the heel of Saddam, I feel sorry about their suffering, I feel a real sense of tragedy about the lives many of them lead. But the truth is that while Saddam remains there, things will not get better for them, and what we cannot do is allow him to threaten his neighbours and the stability of the rest of the world." As The Herald revealed yesterday, defence will be high on the agenda of the talks between president George W Bush and the prime minister. The British government believes there will be no conclusive talks on the US plans for a national missile defence system. On the European rapid reaction force, Mr Blair will assure the Americans that he would not contemplate its formation if it would undermine Nato. He said: "If it was set to undermine Nato, there is no question of it going ahead on that basis, it mustn't, it shouldn't and it won't." -Feb 22nd Miroslav Antic, http://www.antic.org/SNN/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
