- British diplomats were said to be in "a panic"
last night about the damage being done to Britain's reputation abroad because
of Tony Blair's support for President George Bush on Iraq.
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- In an echo of the letter last month by 52 former diplomats
protesting at support for US policy in the Middle East, some senior diplomats
have privately urged the Foreign Office to distance the British Government
from the Bush administration over the abuse of prisoners by US soldiers
in Iraq.
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- A senior Foreign Office official said: "There are
telegrams coming in. The diplomats are panicking a bit. Downing Street
is determined to hold the line. We can't afford to panic now. To capitulate
now would be disaster."
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- Tony Blair also faced demands by his most senior Labour
backbenchers at a private meeting yesterday for the Prime Minister to distance
himself from President Bush.
-
- Labour backbenchers said Mr Blair should use the hard
evidence of US abuse of prisoners documented in the report of the Red Cross
in Iraq to force a shift of policy by President Bush.
-
- "Some are saying the beheading of the US man has
helped us but it hasn't," a Labour MP said. "We ought to tell
Bush we need much faster progress on the UN."
-
- Last month, 52 former diplomats took the unprecedented
step of writing a joint letter of protest, calling on Mr Blair to abandon
his support for the Bush policy on the Middle East, warning him that it
was "doomed''. Senior diplomatic figures, including Lord Howe, the
former foreign secretary, said at the time the retired diplomats were reflecting
the "great anxiety'' in the Foreign Office among serving diplomats
but the claims of panic last night are the first evidence that he was right.
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- The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, fuelled the speculation
of unrest in the Foreign Office on Tuesday when he appeared to distance
himself in the Commons from the hard evidence of brutality by the American
military police.
-
- Responding to a claim by a Labour MP that Britain must
"share the shame'' of the US over the brutality against prisoners,
Mr Straw said: "I do not accept your suggestion that responsibility
for dealing with matters that lie within the US sectors is also shared
by the UK."
-
- But the Prime Minister's most senior aides refused last
night to follow Mr Straw in drawing a line between the US and UK over prisoner
abuse. One aide said Downing Street would not allow splits to develop in
the partnership.
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- "There are allegations against British soldiers
too. It is not a simple issue," a senior Blair aide said.
-
- Mr Blair told MPs yesterday during Commons questions
to the Prime Minister that there could be charges made soon in one or more
of the cases of alleged brutality against prisoners by British soldiers.
He also offered to allow the Red Cross to have permanent access to jails
in the British sector in southern Iraq.
-
- But he cast further doubt on the authenticity of the
photographs by the Daily Mirror of alleged prisoner abuse by members of
the Queen's Lancashire Regiment.
-
- The Ministry of Defence said investigations were still
continuing by the Special Investigation Branch of the Royal Military Police
but Mr Blair told the Commons: "The photographs are almost certainly
fake."
-
- In angry exchanges with Michael Howard, the leader of
the Conservative Party, Mr Blair said: "There is no evidence whatever
either of systematic abuse or of ministers or anyone else refusing to act
on allegations of abuse in respect of detainees in British custody."
-
- Mr Blair infuriated his own side when he told Mr Howard
to show more pride in the work being done by the British Armed Forces in
Iraq. One left-wing Labour MP said: "Blair is using the patriotic
card to try to shut us up."
-
- Mr Howard attacked the failure of the Government to act
more decisively on the Red Cross report. The Tory said the allegations
and the Red Cross report had led to the "greatest crisis in Iraq since
the war ended and have added immeasurably to the dangers and difficulties
faced by coalition forces including British troops."
-
- Mr Blair said the first time he saw the report was last
Monday. He denied it had been passed to ministers in February, when it
was given to the lawyers for Mr Blair's special emissary in Iraq, Sir Jeremy
Greenstock. The Prime Minister also said Britain was in discussions with
UN partners about the withdrawal of troops from Iraq but Downing Street
later made it clear there would be no early pull-out.
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- The elections next January for a new Iraqi government
are seen as a "milestone" and are "not a deadline for withdrawing
troops", A No. 10 spokesman said. Ken Purchase, who was an aide to
Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary, said: "If he [Mr Blair]
intends to stay on, he must have a recovery plan for his popularity. That
means he has to put distance between himself and President Bush, not only
on Iraq but also on the issue of Palestine and Israel."
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=520734
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