A senior British official warned Iraq Tuesday from pinning high hopes on a possible rift between the U.S. and Europe over a military attack on Iraq and asserted international unanimity on the Iraqi issue.
According to KUNA, the British minister of state for Middle East affairs, Ben Bradshaw, stated in a press conference at the British embassy in Abu Dhabi that the position of the international community is unanimous on the return of U.N. inspectors to Iraq and that any kind of opposition from the Iraqi regime on this issue would
only complicate matters further.
The official who arrived in the UAE earlier Tuesday played down the possibility of striking Iraq in case it does not allow the weapons inspectors to resume their work unconditionally.
These comments came as the British media reported that the majority of voters are opposed to British backing for American military action against Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
According to the new opinion poll, a total of 51% - would disapprove of British political support for an American-led attack on Iraq, with or without the presence of British troops. Only 35% say they would support such action.
In February 1998 a similar poll found that 56% supported bombing raids against Iraq, and in February 1991 the same poll showed that 80% of British voters backed the allied coalition using force to get Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait.
Meanwhile, according to the British Guardian daily, Saddam Hussein has told his military commanders to limit attacks on British and American aircraft patrolling the no-fly zone over southern Iraq in order to preserve his air defense system.
In the first two months of this year, there were only 11 attacks on British aircraft compared with 73 over the first three months of last year. Consequently, bombing by British and US planes has fallen dramatically, with no weapons fired in February. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
