EDITED TRANSCRIPT OF DOORSTEP GIVEN BY THE PRIME MINISTER, MR TONY BLAIR, LONDON, FRIDAY, 18 DECEMBER 1998
PRIME MINISTER:
Tonight, as you know, British Tornadoes are in the air again and our thoughts are very much with the crews and with their families, and we thank them again for the work that they are doing
on behalf of their country, and indeed on behalf of the world.
I am pleased to say that though it is very early at this stage to do a proper battle damage assessment, nonetheless I believe that we are on course to achieve our military objective. There is no doubt at all that we are significantly damaging Saddam Hussein's military capability and reducing therefore, again significantly, the threat that he poses to the region and to the world, in particular the action that has been taken against his air defence systems, his command and control systems - that is the nerve centre that allows him to use his troops, against missile production and also ensuring that we damage significantly his ability to deliver and to use any weapons of mass destruction capability. All these things combined together are assisting us in achieving the objectives that we have set ourselves.
Of course at the same time we are pursuing the diplomatic contacts around the world. Today I have spoken of course to President Clinton, to Chancellor Schroeder, to President Chirac, to Crown Prince Abdullah, to President Mubarak and to others. And I think there is a very great deal of understanding right round the world that Saddam Hussein does indeed pose a threat, that it is necessary indeed to make sure that we reduce that threat that he poses.
QUESTION:
What is your response to the Iraqi claims that you lied about the size of the Presidential sites and that you deliberately precipitated a criminal act of aggression against Iraq?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't think that anyone who looks at the facts of this seriously believes in the credibility of Saddam Hussein. He is the person that has lied all the way through, from the time before the Gulf War, to the Gulf War itself when he had to be repulsed from Kuwait, to all the actions he has taken since. Every time he gave his word he broke it. And you will know that a month ago, when we almost acted and then pulled back, we did so on the basis that he would offer unconditional, unrestricted access to the weapons inspectors, he broke that word too. If I can just say one sentence on Richard Butler, who is being attacked by the Iraqis: Richard Butler was an Ambassador to the United Nations from Australia; he is a man of the utmost integrity, he
is somebody who has dedicated his life to the principles of the United Nations and I don't think there is any serious doubt as to the people who have been telling lies in this situation. It is Saddam Hussein. You look back at all the chances that we have given him to come back into compliance, with the words that he gave us and gave the whole of the world community, and you see that each time he broke them, and I think people understand. Even if some people don't agree with the military action, they understand why it is necessary to make sure that Saddam Hussein is kept in his cage, because if he is allowed out of his cage he is a danger to the world.
QUESTION:
How concerned are you about the lack of international support, in particular the Russian stance recalling their Ambassador here and the vote in the parliament in Moscow for a unilateral lifting of sanctions against Iraq?
PRIME MINISTER:
Let us be very clear about the international support. Yes, it is true that certain countries who have got a well established position on this have disagreed with military action. But we have had enormous support in Europe, from the countries that I listed in the House of Commons the
other day, most notably from Germany, but also from many other countries too in the rest of the world, and indeed from the Arab world, a great deal of understanding about the threat that Saddam poses because those countries know that the most immediate threat he poses is indeed to them. If you look back over Saddam's political life and what he has done in his country, he is the man that began the war with Iran; the moment he was out of that he invaded Kuwait; the moment he was repulsed from Kuwait because the international community stood up to him he attacked the Kurds in the north, he attacked others in the south. This is a man who every time he is given the chance to use violence and to use terror will do so. I think that is why there is a great deal of understanding as to why we have taken this action; we have taken it with the deepest regret and we have made that clear. One of the reasons why we have so carefully
targeted this action, targeting military installations precisely, trying to do everything we can to limit the civilian damage, is precisely because we wanted to conduct an operation with a set of objectives that diminish and degrade his threat to the rest of the world, whilst doing the minimum damage we possibly can to the long suffering Iraqi people.
QUESTION:
You said just now that you wanted to keep Saddam in his cage. I know that it is difficult while you are in the middle of Desert Fox to look forward after that. Will you need to go back to the United Nations to take further military action, which you hinted at in the House of Commons yesterday, and George Robertson talked about not going away this morning, or is Saddam under now permanent threat from the end of Desert Fox onwards?
PRIME MINISTER:
Our resolve to make sure that he is in compliance with the will of the world community is absolute, and in a sense the next steps depend on his response to this and also to ensuring that we diminish the threat that he poses and we carry on should he attempt to revive it in any way at all. You can see there is barely any period of time that he has been in power in Iraq that he hasn't been attempting to use these huge military installations and complex in order to wage aggression against others. So what we want to do through this campaign is to reduce significantly the whole of his military capability, that is the purpose for example of making sure he doesn't have a proper functioning air defence system, so that his command and control are severely damaged. Then obviously for the future we have got to assess the situation at the conclusion of our campaign and then move on from there.
QUESTION:
So what in practical terms does keeping him in his cage mean - does it mean that you would take immediate military action if you suspected that he was rebuilding his military capability?
PRIME MINISTER:
All that we need to do for the forward strategy we will leave to another time. But I can assure you we are very conscious of the fact that the reason we took this action is because unless he is kept very firmly in his cage then he is going to use whatever force he can against others and we have got to put in place a strategy for ensuring that that is so in the long term, that that threat is reduced.
QUESTION:
But that is the concern though, isn't it, that a few months, perhaps years along the line we might see Saddam, who has perhaps had a lot of his military capability destroyed this time, rebuild it?
PRIME MINISTER:
I agree of course, as long as Saddam remains in power there is always a danger and a threat, because that is in the nature of the man. The truth is he is not interested in any solution that curbs his weapon-making capability and his military ambitions, and that is why
we have had to take the action that we have taken. Even though there are people who may disagree with our response, there is no disagreement anywhere amongst anyone I have
spoken to in the international community: one, that unless he is constrained he poses a threat; and two, that he has been in breach of every single undertaking that he has ever given to the
United Nations and to the world community.
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