LONDON, March 10: Britain denied a report on Sunday that the United States had asked it to provide 25,000 troops to join a possible offensive aimed at overthrowing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
After a week in which Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a stark warning to Saddam to stop developing weapons of mass destruction or face the consequences, the Observer newspaper said Washington had asked London to draw up plans for the troop deployment as part of a joint task force.
Asked whether any such request had been made, a spokesman for Blair’s Downing Street office said: “No decisions have been taken, let alone any requests made.”
The Observer said troop deployment was one of three options for action against Iraq being considered by Britain.
Other options would be to offer British special forces to support opposition elements within Iraq in taking on Saddam, or to intensify air strikes against Iraq if no agreement could be reached on allowing international weapons inspectors in.
Speculation that Iraq is to be the next target of the US-led “war on terrorism” has mounted since President George W. Bush included Iraq as part of what he called an “axis of evil” in his State of the Union address in January. In Britain too, the language has hardened in the past month.
“(Saddam) should not underestimate the determination of the international community to prevent him developing and using weapons of mass destruction,” Blair wrote in a newspaper article last week.
POLL RESULTS: A poll in a Sunday newspaper found the British public split over whether Blair should commit troops to support any US military action against Iraq.
The poll found that 45 per cent would support the use of British troops in those circumstances, while 43 per cent would oppose it. Twelve per cent expressed no opinion.—Reuters
