British Prime Minister, Tony Blair said Thursday military action against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq is not imminent. Speaking at a televised briefing in Downing Street, the British leader said: "We are all getting a bit ahead of ourselves on this issue."
But he again refused to commit to giving MPs a vote ahead of any military action. "There are many issues to be considered before we are at the point of decision," he told reporters at Downing Street.
"I would simply say to you that if you look at what we did in relation for example to Afghanistan, we consulted the House of Commons very carefully. "But I am not going to pin myself at this stage to any specific form of consultation."
Blair urged Saddam to allow weapons inspectors back into Iraq to provide the UN with information on weapons of mass destruction. He added Britain and America were not yet ready to publish a dossier of evidence on the threat of Iraq.
"When we think it is the appropriate time then we will do it," he aired. According to him, dealing with weapons of mass destruction was the next step in the war against terror.
Reacting to Blair's comments Labour's Paul Flynn said that there was genuine concern on the government's backbenches. He told BBC: "It's very worrying to many Labour MPs that we might be engaging in a war not with a man who lives in a cave but with the leader of a sophisticated modern state and who certainly possesses if not nuclear weapons then biological and chemical weapons." (Albawaba.com)
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