The Hindu : Little optimism in U.K.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 16, 2003

International

International

Little optimism in U.K.

By Hasan Surooor

LONDON MARCH 15. As the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, prepared to travel to the Azores for the much-hyped `crisis' summit over Iraq on Sunday , there was little optimism here that it would produce any dramatic results.

Though billed as the last diplomatic push for peace, it was widely seen more as a `council of war' and the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, echoed the downbeat mood saying that a war was "now much more probable." Diplomats were reported to be deeply pessimistic about the outcome of the summit with the most widely quoted remark of the day coming from a British diplomat who said: "We are travelling more in hope than expectation."

The Liberal Democrat Leader, Charles Kennedy, called it a "summit of despair," and a signal for war. Even as the official line remained that diplomatic options had not been given up and Mr. Blair was still engaged in efforts to get support for a second U.N. resolution, privately the sense was that he was fighting a losing battle in his bid to secure the U.N. legitimacy for the looming war.

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