Straw snubs US hawks on Iran

[paineinthearse]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1452781,00.html

The Sunday Times - World

January 23, 2005

Straw snubs US hawks on Iran
David Cracknell and Tony Allen-Mills, Washington

JACK STRAW has drawn up a dossier putting the case against a military attack on Iran amid fears that President George W Bush’s administration may seek Britain’s backing for a new conflict.
Straw and his officials fear that hawks in Washington will talk the American president into a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, just as they persuaded him to go to war in Iraq.
The foreign secretary has produced a 200-page dossier that rules out military action and makes the case for a “negotiated solution” to curbing the ayatollahs’ nuclear ambitions amid increasingly bellicose noises from Washington.

He will press home the point at a meeting with Condoleezza Rice, the incoming secretary of state, at a meeting in Washington tomorrow.
The document says a peaceful solution led by Britain, France and Germany is “in the best interests of Iran and the international community”. It refers to “safeguarding Iran’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear technology”. The dossier, entitled Iran’s Nuclear Programme, was quietly issued in the Commons on the eve of Bush’s inauguration last week for fear of provoking a public rift with Washington — although privately tensions are running high between the two nations.

The approach contrasts with the government’s two Iraq dossiers, which were trumpeted to make the case for war.

more......

[saltpoint]

1. From some of the reports on BBC and The Guardian --

-- I would say that Jack Straw would probably catch the next flight to Washington, cab to the White House, and strangle Bush's entire defense team.

Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfie may be cooking up a little Iran Stew, but my guess is Mr. Straw ain't hungry no more.

[theresistance]

2. The British government stated ages ago

that it would not consider supporting an attack on Iran. But I actually won't hold my breath. In the future we may be looking back at these words, like we look back on Bush's words about not "nation-building" ans so on.