Monday 10 February 2003

Washington and London isolated

The United States of America and the United Kingdom have managed to isolate themselves from the main decision-making centres of international diplomacy and simultaneously, put on stand-by a process of forming a New World Order, based upon the UNO, discussion, diplomacy and a multi-lateral, equalitarian approach to crisis management.

Washington and London stand isolated not only from world public opinion but also from the main poles where policy is made: France, Germany, Russia and China stand firm in their declarations that there are not, at present, any grounds for an attack against Iraq while NATO stands more divided than ever on the issue of applying contingency plans for the defence of Turkey. Although Lord Robertson stated today at a press conference in Brussels that this decision is not connected in any way with a decision to strike at Iraq, the fact that a schism is threatened, if not yet a fact, lends credence to the belief that the position defended by London and Washington needs to be corrected.

On Sunday, Hans Blix, Director of the UNMOVIC team, declared that progress was being made after documentation on biological weapons and missiles were handed over to his team by the Iraqi authorities. “There are some good developments from these two days”, he declared at a Press Conference in Baghdad last night, an opinion shared by Mohammed Al-Baradei, Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who has repeatedly stated that there are no signs whatsoever that Iraq is pursuing a nuclear weapons programme, contrary to the claims by Washington.

These claims, based upon flimsy evidence, were weakened this weekend after it was discovered that an important part of Colin Powell’s speech to the UNO was based upon a 1991 report which had been lifted from the Internet by the British Intelligence services, MI6.

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