BRITAIN: The British Defence Secretary, Mr Geoff Hoon, called up army reservists yesterday as the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, gave the clearest signal that he will stand with America in any war against Iraq.
While insisting the dispatch of a Royal Naval task force to the Gulf and the mobilisation of an initial 1,500 reservists did not mean war was "inevitable", Mr Hoon told MPs that the latest developments would leave Saddam Hussein in no doubt that the United Kingdom "means business". While the Conservatives accused Mr Hoon of disguising the full extent of Britain's military commitment because of "splits and divisions" inside the Labour Party, the Defence Secretary publicly rebuked the Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, for his suggestion on Monday that the odds on war with Iraq were roughly 60/40 against.
Questioned about Mr Straw's assessment that the balance had tilted against war, Mr Hoon told the BBC: "I don't believe that it helps to make those kind of comments at this stage."
Pressed to say if Mr Straw should not have made them, Mr Hoon continued: "He gave a snap-shot, as I understand it, of the position at the time. What I have to do, as far as my responsibilities in the government are concerned, is to make available military capabilities should they be required."
Downing Street would not comment on the difference of emphasis between Mr Hoon and Mr Straw as the Conservatives asked which army units had been earmarked for use against Iraq.
Mr Blair, meanwhile, was seeking to address nervous public and Labour Party opinion, while again insisting America could not be left alone to deal with any Iraqi breach of the UN resolution.
Addressing the second day of a special London conference of British ambassadors in London, Mr Blair urged the United States to "listen back" to her closest ally and the wider international community and embrace a broader world agenda on a range of issues from climate change to poverty in Africa and, most especially, the need to energise the search for a Middle East peace settlement.
At the same time, Mr Blair insisted that Britain's alliance with the US was rooted in shared values and not simply American strength.
Describing anti-Americanism as "a foolish indulgence," Mr Blair suggested that even those countries which were critical of the United States wished they enjoyed the same relationship with the White House as the UK.
The Prime Minister went on: "We should use this alliance to good effect. The problem people have with the US is not that, for example, they oppose them on weapons of mass destruction or international terrorism. People listen to the US on these issues and may well agree with them. But they want the US to listen back."
Mr Blair continued: "So for the international community, the Middle East peace process is also important, global poverty is important, global warming is important, the United Nations is important."
However, Mr Blair said America's willingness to go through the UN over Iraq was a vital symbol of the desire to work with others, and he repudiated suggestions that the price of British influence was simply to do what the US asked.
"I would never commit British troops to a war I thought was wrong or unnecessary," said Mr Blair.
"Where we disagree, as over Kyoto [on climate change], we disagree. But the price of influence is that we do not leave the US to face the tricky issues alone."
International terrorism was one such issue: "The fanatics have to be confronted and defeated, in ideas as well as militarily." Weapons of mass destruction was another such issue, and Mr Blair criticised nations which knew the US had to confront these issues while wanting "the luxury of criticising them for it". So when, as with Iraq, the international community made a demand that a regime disarm itself of weapons of mass destruction, Mr Blair said when that regime refused "that regime threatens us".
Unless the world took a stand, Mr Blair said, "we will rue the consequences of our weakness". And in a renewed warning of possible military action to come, he said: "America should not be forced to take this issue on alone. We should all be part of it. If the will of the UN is breached, then the will should be enforced."