International

Blair to go by U.N. mandate on Iraq

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON MAY 10. In a bid to defuse a threatened revolt in his party and the Government over Britain's `hawkish' position on Iraq, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is reported to have assured restless Labour MPs that he would not support a U.S. military action against Baghdad unless it has the backing of the U.N. Security Council .His remarks, during a private meeting with party activists, came amid signs of heightening tension over the issue as 10 Labour MPs tabled a motion in Parliament opposing any "offensive military action'' against Iraq without a "specific mandate'' from the U.N. More than 150 MPs, cutting across party lines, have already signed a separate motion on similar lines, and a group of British parliamentarians just back from a peace mission to Baghdad has warned of any precipitate action.The staunchly pro-Iraqi Labour MP, George Galloway, who led what he claimed was the largest delegation yet to visit Baghdad , said it was "symptomatic of a rise in support for a new British policy towards Iraq''. He attacked Mr. Blair for appearing to toe the American line, and said Britain's "special relationship'' with the U.S. did not mean signing on the dotted line.

``Blair aides admit privately that widespread concern in the party about the Prime Minister's hawkish stance is not confined to the usual left-wing suspects,'' one newspaper said today. Members of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee were quoted in The Independent as saying that Mr. Blair gave them a `categorical' assurance that he would not support any military action against Iraq without U.N. backing or consultation with European allies. Meanwhile, reports spoke of Britain starting to `diverge' from Washington's military strategy and concentrating instead on diplomatic efforts to get Iraq to let U.N. weapons inspectors back into the country — and on U.N. terms. British foreign policy watchers said that for all the rhetoric Britain was not keen on a `regime change' in Baghdad if things could be settled through diplomatic means. The British policy, it was stated, was "to divest Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, not to divest Iraq of Saddam Hussein''.

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