Defiant Blair shuns massive peace protest

British Prime Minister Tony Blair today refused to back down from his commitment to use force if necessary to disarm Saddam Hussein, in the face of massive pressure for peace.

As more than a million anti-war protesters marched in London, Glasgow and Belfast, Mr Blair made a passionate defence of the moral case for unseating Saddam.

Failure to deal with the Iraqi dictator now would undermine the UN and result in “consequences to be paid in blood”, he warned.

But his comments came against the backdrop of widespread dissent within Labour, with high-profile party figures like Mo Mowlam and Michael Foot joining anti-war protests and backbench MPs openly questioning Mr Blair’s future as leader.

Speaking to Labour’s spring conference in Glasgow, the Prime Minister said that inspectors were being given more time to continue their efforts to track down and destroy Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction.

But he made clear that Britain was not ready to see inspections drag on indefinitely, suggesting that chief inspector Hans Blix should return on February 28 to update the UN Security Council on progress.

British and American diplomats were understood to be thrashing out the wording for a new draft resolution to be presented to Security Council over the next week.

But after the absence of a “smoking gun” in Dr Blix’s report delivered to the Council in New York yesterday, there were doubts over whether a resolution authorising war could be passed.

Mr Blair appealed to a sceptical international community to back the tough Anglo-American stance on Iraq, warning that if they failed to disarm Saddam, then the threat of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists would grow, and the authority of the UN would be fatally undermined.

“If we do not confront these twin menaces of rogue states with weapons of mass destruction and terrorism, they will not disappear,” said Mr Blair. “They will just feed and grow on our weakness.

“If we show weakness now, if we allow the plea for more time to become just an excuse for prevarication until the moment for action passes, then... the menace, and not just from Saddam, will grow; the authority of the UN will be lost; and the conflict when it comes will be more bloody.”

In an impassioned appeal to demonstrators, Mr Blair said he respected their right to peaceful protest but warned that following their advice would mean leaving Saddam in power.

Coming closer than ever to justifying military action on the grounds of “regime change” in Iraq, he said: “The moral case against war has a moral answer: it is the moral case for removing Saddam.

“It is not the reason we act. That must be according to the UN mandate on weapons of mass destruction. But it is the reason, frankly, why if we do have to act, we should do so with a clear conscience.”

He acknowledged that innocent people would die in a war on Iraq, but insisted: “If the result of peace is Saddam staying in power, not disarmed, then I tell you there are consequences paid in blood for that decision too.

“Ridding the world of Saddam would be an act of humanity. It is leaving him there that is, in truth, inhumane.”

Mr Blair’s speech was received with polite applause by his audience of party activists, and a threatened walkout failed to materialise.

But his arguments were rejected by Labour figures taking part in today’s demonstrations.

His former Cabinet ally Ms Mowlam told the Hyde Park rally which ended the London march that Mr Blair and the Government had “got themselves into a right corner”.

She said: “There is a position now ... that if a country has a lot of people killed from poverty and military dictatorship, if that number is smaller than that killed by war then the war is OK. That to me is totally illogical.”

And US human rights campaigner Rev Jesse Jackson sent a personal message to the Prime Minister: “Take a step back from war. Hear the voices of Britain.

“The Archbishop (of Canterbury), the Pope, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela say that war is wrong. This war may be your legacy, Mr Blair – surely that is not what you want?”