Blair 'should meet Saddam face-to-face'
British Prime Minister Tony Blair should meet Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein for talks to avoid war, the Reverend Jesse Jackson said today.
The former US Presidential hopeful was speaking before travelling to Britain to address peace marchers.
Rev Jackson said war should be avoided unless “overwhelming evidence” of the threat Iraq poses could be produced.
“Iraq is a challenge that must be put in perspective. It is not the priority that Bush and Blair have made it to be,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
“I hope that Mr Blair, because he is a man who has engendered respect from so many people with his talents and his skill and his way of communicating, would do something as bold as go to Iraq and talk to Saddam face to face.”
Al-Qaida, North Korea and the deteriorating situation in the Middle East were all more “imminent” threats, Rev Jackson added.
“This particular build-up doesn’t care whether there is real, real fear or any moral authority,” he said.
“The United Nations continues to say let the weapons inspectors have their opportunity.
“The United Nations is patient yet persistent because it does not want a bloody conclusion.
“There are members of the United Nations that have outstanding violations, a number of them.
“Yet we are not threatening in any way to confront those nations militarily.”
