- LONDON (Reuters) - A leading
member of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government said on Sunday
she would resign if the country went to war with Iraq without the backing
of a second U.N. resolution.
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- The announcement by International Development Secretary
Clare Short ratcheted up the pressure on Blair, facing rising disaffection
from the public and his own party over his support for a U.S.-led attack
to remove Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
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- "I will not uphold a breach of international law
or this undermining of the U.N. and I will resign from the government,"
Short told the BBC.
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- Junior government member Andy Reed quit his post on Sunday
and there was speculation four others could follow amid a rising rebellion
among the ranks of Blair's Labour Party against his unswerving support
for a U.S.-led attack on Iraq.
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- A new poll showed that only 15 percent of Britons backed
an attack on Iraq without a second U.N. resolution.
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- Britain, Spain and the United States are expected to
press for a U.N. Security Council vote on a second resolution this week
after British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw put forward a draft resolution
giving Saddam until March 17 to disarm or face military action.
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- France has warned it may exercise its power of veto on
the resolution, arguing that U.N. weapons inspectors are making headway.
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- Iraq denies having banned weapons of mass destruction.
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- Short, renowned for holding and voicing forceful opinions,
accused Blair of making a major blunder, politically, diplomatically and
personally.
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- "The current situation is deeply reckless; reckless
for the world, reckless for the undermining of the U.N. in this disorderly
world...reckless with our government, reckless with his own future, position
and place in history. It's extraordinarily reckless, I'm very surprised
by it," she said.
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- BLAIR TALKS TO WORLD LEADERS
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- Blair spoke to several world leaders at the weekend to
drum up support for the new resolution on Iraq. But he faced an uphill
struggle.
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- Chinese President Jiang Zemin told Blair by telephone
on Sunday that the crisis could be resolved politically and weapons inspections
in Iraq should continue and be strengthened, China's Xinhua news agency
said.
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- China, along with fellow permanent members France, Britain,
the United States and Russia, has a veto on the Security Council. Russia
also opposes a resolution that would implicitly or explicitly authorize
military action.
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- "What I'm hoping to achieve is a passage of a...second
resolution making it clear if that is the case that Saddam remains in non-compliance
with the United Nations law," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
said in a television interview recorded on Friday and broadcast on Sunday.
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- Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday there
was a "strong chance" of getting nine or 10 states to back the
resolution.
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- A second U.N. resolution would take a weight off Blair's
shoulders.
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- Blair is still smarting from a vote in parliament last
month in which more than a quarter of Labour parliamentarians voted against
his stance on Iraq, the biggest rebellion since he took office in 1997.
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- photo credit and caption:
- Britain's Development Secretary Clare Short arrives in
Downing Street in this September 23, 2002 file photo. Short, a leading
member of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government, said on Sunday
she would resign if the country went to war with Iraq without the backing
of a second U.N. resolution. Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Reuters
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- Copyright 2003 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved.
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