March 18, 2002	Monday	Muharram 3, 1423

LONDON, March 17: A British government minister said on Sunday the United States would be foolish to attack Iraq and hinted she would resign if Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington’s staunch ally, backed a military strike.

Separately, Home Secretary (Interior Minister) David Blunkett was reported in a Sunday newspaper to have warned Blair of civil unrest if Iraq was attacked over its refusal to allow access to UN weapons inspectors.

International Development Secretary Clare Short said “crude military action” would not solve the problem of Iraq’s alleged programme to rebuild an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.

“To open up a military flank on Iraq would be very unwise,” Short told BBC Television’s On the Record programme in the clearest expression yet of concern from within Blair’s government over possible conflict with Baghdad.

Blair, who will fly to the United States next month for talks on Iraq with US President George W. Bush, has warned that the world must act against Saddam to prevent him acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction.

But he faces a wave of dissent from his own ruling Labour Party against joining Bush in any military action. Around a quarter of his parliamentarians have signed a petition expressing “deep unease” at the prospect of British involvement.

Britain’s Observer newspaper, which says Washington wants up to 25,000 British troops to form part of any Iraqi invasion force, said on Sunday senior military officials had also warned about being sucked into “a perilous open-ended commitment”.—Reuters