[A-List] UK state: in no man's land

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Blair caught in the US-Europe crossfire

No 10 goes into denial in rows over peace plan and Nato veto

Michael White, political editor
Tuesday February 11, 2003
The Guardian

Tony Blair was forced into diplomatic hiding yesterday when Britain's
much-vaunted position as Europe's "bridge" across the Atlantic was caught in
the crossfire over Iraq between the United States and the European Union's
biggest players, France and Germany. The prime minister has staked much of
his political capital on supporting George Bush in public, risking isolation
in Europe at a time when Britain is already at odds with its neighbours over
the euro and the draft EU constitution.

But last night it was looking as if Mr Blair's big push to persuade wavering
voters of the rightness of his willingness to fight - without UN sanction if
necessary - had been neutralised by Paris and Berlin in the crucial
interlude ahead of Friday's weapons inspectors report to the UN.

After the weekend revelation of the Franco-German plan to intensify weapons
inspection as an alternative to war, Downing Street was further embarrassed
by a Greek plan for an emergency EU summit on Monday and by the German,
French and Belgian block on Turkey's formal application for Nato support in
the event of war.

Faced with such disarray on the European side of the "bridge" - and the
anger of the Bush administration at French and German tactics - Downing
Street showed the equivalent of Nelson putting his telescope to his blind
eye.

At the official No 10 briefing at 11am and again in in the late afternoon
officials insisted that there was no Franco-German plan, despite huge cover
age in the media after a leak to the weekly news magazine, Der Spiegel.

"Neither the French nor German government is saying there is a secret plan
or a plan, nothing has been tabled", and "there is no plan", Mr Blair's
spokesman said.

Later he insisted: "We have no formal Franco-German plan. Nothing has been
presented to us."

The alleged "veto" of Turkey's plea for Nato equipment was not a veto, but a
procedural "silence break" that allows Nato members to seek discussion
before a decision, he said. "A veto is a veto only if something does not
happen."

No 10's determined effort not to add fuel to the flames extended to a report
on Sky News about the Greek plan for an "EU unity" summit. No 10 could find
no confirmation of it, though by teatime last night it admitted that such a
summit might happen, provided the agenda can be agreed.

But Whitehall officials watching President Jacques Chirac's Paris press
conference with President Vladimir Putin of Russia - six days after a
similar session with Mr Blair at Le Touquet - found little to quarrel with.
"The French are still in line with 1441," said one.

No 10 sticks rigidly to the terms of UN resolution 1441, which states that
Iraq must comply immediately and completely with the UN's demands for
disarmament.

Downing Street says that past predictions that it was isolated have been
proved wrong, citing the example of Mr Blair's pro-American letter to
newspapers, written jointly at the end of last month with the Spanish prime
minister Jose Maria Aznar. "Eight nations signed the Aznar-Blair letter in
the end," an official said.

Mr Blair does not want to undermine his relationship with Mr Chirac and
their promise of better defence cooperation, renewed at Le Touquet. The
weekend flare-up between Donald Rumsfeld, the fiery US defence secretary,
and Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, was an accident waiting to
happen.

"The bad-tempered focus of this is Rumsfeld. George Bush should find a way
of hauling him back, he's charging around Europe like a rogue elephant," one
senior pro-American MP observed. Like the Anzar-Blair letter, Mr Rumsfeld's
"Old Europe" jibe may have provoked the weekend wobble.

But even in private British government officials are reluctant to disparage
French motives, even though many MPs are cynical about them. With Washington
likely to act no matter what Mr Chirac says, the MPs say France will be
careful not to saw off the branch on which it is sitting.

One No 10 official said: "We are waiting to see where France ends up. That
French aircraft carrier is still making its way south as far as we know."

· The father of the Commons, the veteran Labour MP Tam Dalyell, withdrew
from the chamber yesterday when he was threatened with expulsion by the
Speaker, Michael Martin, after repeatedly accusing ministers of misleading
MPs and voters over the government's "cut and paste" intelligence dossier on
Iraq.