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American Morning
Blair's Gamble
Aired March 11, 2003 - 08:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: British Prime Minister Tony Blair could be putting his political future on the line to support the U.S. position on Iraq. How serious is the political revolt that is facing him at home?
For a context on that, let's travel to London, where our senior international correspondent Christiane Amanpour is standing by.
Good morning, Christiane.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
And how serious is measured, if you like, by how now Blair's own allies in Britain are beginning to talk about what a serious pickle he is in.
Up until now, it's been the traditional anti-war group in Britain, the people who are essentially leading a campaign against the war who have talked about his political vulnerability. But now even people who support him, who support his military position, are saying the longer this goes on, the more difficult and more dangerous it is for Prime Minister Blair, and thus, the crucial and frantic hunt for more votes to put a Security Council vote over the top. But in Britain, the latest poll shows only 19 percent of the people here would support Blair going with military action if there is no second U.N. resolution.
Already over the weekend, we had this outburst if, you like, from Claire Short, the development minister, who basically said that she would quit if she did not have a second resolution to be able to back the prime minister with. And now they're saying even more ministers and ministerial aides may join the exodus from a Blair government if indeed this goes on.
The word Claire Short used was reckless to describe the prime minister's, what she called blind support of the United States, and this is very strong language from a minister right now.
Now, as for Blair himself, he is looking increasingly fragile, tired and under the gun. He appeared on a television show last night in which you probably just saw or heard he was slow clapped (ph) by a hostile audience. He's doing everything he can two-to-sell his case, but it's getting more and more difficult. And now faced with a definite French veto, as announced by Jacques Chirac, and a probable Russian one, this is what he had to say about how that will affect world politics. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: And I believe passionately that if we end up with Europe and America dividing apart, that will be very damaging for both of us and the rest of the world. So I think we've got to work very, very hard over these next few days to see if we can't come to a common position. And as I hope Britain's been showing in the Security Council, you know, we are prepared to try and find that common ground. But we need others to be equally willing to do so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: So what he's doing now, as you know, from the gossip in the U.N., is that Britain is trying to perhaps give more time, trying now to put benchmarks, to give specific reasons and specific targets for Saddam Hussein to meet, to try to win on other council members, those waverers. You've got the British senior minister now traveling to Africa, to try to sway Cameroon, Angola and Guinea, this coming on the heels of a visit of the French foreign minister over the weekend. So a real battle still on for these votes, and it's really beginning to tell on the strain that's showing on Tony Blair here in London.
Back to you.
ZAHN: And, Christiane, a little bit earlier this morning, I had the opportunity to talk with the British ambassador to the U.N., and I asked him the question, if he felt, even though the prime minister's never publicly stated this to the case, if he felt even without the second resolution passing if American -- or excuse, British troops would stand side by side American troops, and he said basically yes. What kind of a risk for that is for Tony Blair? What does that really mean? Dozen he lose his job at the end of this if there's a war?
AMANPOUR: Well, that's just not clear. Look, the standard line so far, as we also reported that on Friday, is that Blair is going no matter what. That's what he said publicly, and that's what he's going to do. If this war is long, messy, without any kind of reasonable conclusion, with a mess in postwar-Iraq, if the worst-case scenario happens, then his career, the analysts say, is on the line in a very, very serious way. If, on the other hand, it does go well, and the postwar scenario in Iraq is clear and is not messy and the war itself is short and triumphant, then he will be able to recoup some of the great political damage that has been inflicted on him up until now. But it's a lot more dicey for him today than it was even last week.
ZAHN: Christiane Amanpour, thank you very much for your perspective. Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired March 11, 2003 - 08:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: British Prime Minister Tony Blair could be putting his political future on the line to support the U.S. position on Iraq. How serious is the political revolt that is facing him at home?
For a context on that, let's travel to London, where our senior international correspondent Christiane Amanpour is standing by.
Good morning, Christiane.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
And how serious is measured, if you like, by how now Blair's own allies in Britain are beginning to talk about what a serious pickle he is in.
Up until now, it's been the traditional anti-war group in Britain, the people who are essentially leading a campaign against the war who have talked about his political vulnerability. But now even people who support him, who support his military position, are saying the longer this goes on, the more difficult and more dangerous it is for Prime Minister Blair, and thus, the crucial and frantic hunt for more votes to put a Security Council vote over the top. But in Britain, the latest poll shows only 19 percent of the people here would support Blair going with military action if there is no second U.N. resolution.
Already over the weekend, we had this outburst if, you like, from Claire Short, the development minister, who basically said that she would quit if she did not have a second resolution to be able to back the prime minister with. And now they're saying even more ministers and ministerial aides may join the exodus from a Blair government if indeed this goes on.
The word Claire Short used was reckless to describe the prime minister's, what she called blind support of the United States, and this is very strong language from a minister right now.
Now, as for Blair himself, he is looking increasingly fragile, tired and under the gun. He appeared on a television show last night in which you probably just saw or heard he was slow clapped (ph) by a hostile audience. He's doing everything he can two-to-sell his case, but it's getting more and more difficult. And now faced with a definite French veto, as announced by Jacques Chirac, and a probable Russian one, this is what he had to say about how that will affect world politics. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: And I believe passionately that if we end up with Europe and America dividing apart, that will be very damaging for both of us and the rest of the world. So I think we've got to work very, very hard over these next few days to see if we can't come to a common position. And as I hope Britain's been showing in the Security Council, you know, we are prepared to try and find that common ground. But we need others to be equally willing to do so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: So what he's doing now, as you know, from the gossip in the U.N., is that Britain is trying to perhaps give more time, trying now to put benchmarks, to give specific reasons and specific targets for Saddam Hussein to meet, to try to win on other council members, those waverers. You've got the British senior minister now traveling to Africa, to try to sway Cameroon, Angola and Guinea, this coming on the heels of a visit of the French foreign minister over the weekend. So a real battle still on for these votes, and it's really beginning to tell on the strain that's showing on Tony Blair here in London.
Back to you.
ZAHN: And, Christiane, a little bit earlier this morning, I had the opportunity to talk with the British ambassador to the U.N., and I asked him the question, if he felt, even though the prime minister's never publicly stated this to the case, if he felt even without the second resolution passing if American -- or excuse, British troops would stand side by side American troops, and he said basically yes. What kind of a risk for that is for Tony Blair? What does that really mean? Dozen he lose his job at the end of this if there's a war?
AMANPOUR: Well, that's just not clear. Look, the standard line so far, as we also reported that on Friday, is that Blair is going no matter what. That's what he said publicly, and that's what he's going to do. If this war is long, messy, without any kind of reasonable conclusion, with a mess in postwar-Iraq, if the worst-case scenario happens, then his career, the analysts say, is on the line in a very, very serious way. If, on the other hand, it does go well, and the postwar scenario in Iraq is clear and is not messy and the war itself is short and triumphant, then he will be able to recoup some of the great political damage that has been inflicted on him up until now. But it's a lot more dicey for him today than it was even last week.
ZAHN: Christiane Amanpour, thank you very much for your perspective. Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
