Straw's
Departure Strengthens
Blair's Agenda Against Iran
By Abid Mustafa
08 May, 2006
Countercurrents.org
After
the British Labour party's worst local election result since 1982, Tony
Blair swiftly moved to reshuffle his cabinet which led to some a high
profile ministers losing their posts. While it was widely anticipated
that Charles Clarke the Home Secretary would lose his job over his failure
to deport immigrant criminals, and John Prescott the Deputy Prime Minister
to be stripped of his ministry, few expected Jack Straw to be removed
from the position of Britain's Foreign Secretary.
It was understandable for
Charles Clarke, John Prescott and Patricia Hewitt ( the Minister for
health) to be in the firing line for incompetence, adultery and how
to fund the NHS, but Jack Straw's conduct was never under any real public
scrutiny. So why was he removed?
The media has given three
reasons for Straw's dismissal: a) forging closer links with Gordon Brown
b) admitting mistakes over Iraq c) undermining Blair's authority over
Iran. The latter appears to be the real reason for Straw's demotion
to the leader of the commons.
While it maybe true that
Straw was repositioning himself to forge closer links with Gordon Brown
(Blair's successor), it unlikely that this was the primary reason for
removing Straw. The inclusion of Gordon Brown's supporters in the new
cabinet discredits this view. Brown's two former advisers, Ed Balls
and Ed Miliband, both landed junior ministerial jobs, while Des Browne
and Europe minister Douglas Alexander were promoted within the cabinet.
Likewise Straw's disquiet
over Iraq could not have featured prominently in Blair's decision to
get rid of him. After all, Straw became the lead architect of the Iraq
war after inheriting the mantle of defending Britain's policy on Iraq
from Robin Cook. Cook resigned as Foreign Secretary and became a staunch
critic of the government's handling of Iraq. On the issue of Iraq, Straw
remained loyal and defended Blair's Iraq policy tooth and nail, he only
spoke out when the Anglo-American debacle in Iraq became plainly manifest
for the whole world to see. Even then his remarks or admission of mistakes
caused Blair little political embarrassment.
If there ever was a reason
for his dismissal from the office of Foreign Secretary then it had to
be Iran. The spat between the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister
over Iran started way back in 2003. Jack Straw much to the annoyance
of Downing Street and Washington has always insisted that military action
against Iran was inconceivable On April 9 2006 Straw described the idea
that the White House wanted a nuclear strike as "completely nuts".
He insisted that Britain would not support pre-emptive military action,
adding: "I'm as certain as I can be sitting here that neither would
the United States." Speaking to the BBC, Mr Straw said: "There
is no smoking gun, there is no casus belli. We can't be certain about
Iran's intentions and that is, therefore, not a basis on which anybody
would gain authority to go for military action." The division between
Mr Straw on the one hand and Mr Bush and Mr Blair on the other was further
exposed in Prime Minister's Questions on 19 April 2006. Sir Menzies
Campbell asked Mr Blair whether he agreed with his Foreign Secretary
that military action against Iran would be "inconceivable"
and that the use of nuclear weapons would be "nuts". An uncomfortable-looking
Tony Blair said that while "nobody is talking about a military
invasion" now was "not the time to send a message of weakness.
The President of the US is not going to take any option off the table.
That is perfectly sensible for all the reasons the President has himself
given many, many times." Using clever language Blair still held
out the possibility that his government would support the military option
but not a full-scale invasion.
The official US stance on
Straw's demotion was somewhat muted. "That is an internal political
matter for the United Kingdom," White House spokesman Scott McClellan
said at a briefing. However, the departure of the Foreign Secretary
was warmly by former officials of the Bush administration. David Frum,
Bush's former speech writer who coined the phrase "axis of evil",
said: "It's a reassertion of Blair's personal leadership of foreign
affairs. He has removed the foreign minister who says military action
against Iran is inconceivable and replaced him with somebody who hasn't
said anything." What is more interesting is that Downing Street
was plotting Straw's demise for quite sometime. The Independent Newspaper
quoted a retired senior US intelligence officer as having told his British
counterpart recently that the White House lost confidence in the Foreign
Secretary at least six months ago. It was an analysis; we now know and
shared with Mr. Blair. The Prime Minister's aides say Mr. Straw has
a tendency to brief friendly journalists with the details of a contentious
meeting, sometimes within hours. It is now evident that the Blair's
inaction to chastise the beleaguered Charles Clarke and the adulterous
John Prescott in the run up to May 5th local election were deliberate.
Blair's main target was Jack Straw, and the abysmal showing of the Labour
Party in the local election provided the perfect opportunity. Straw's
replacement is Margaret Beckett an inexperienced hand at foreign affairs.
Her occupation of the third most coveted position in British politics
has more to do with being a loyal servant of Blair then her competence
over foreign matters. Her biggest challenge will come directly from
the bureaucracy of the foreign office- some of whom deeply resent the
Prime Minister's neoconservative vision of the world.
With Blair effectively running
the foreign office, he and his supporters in BP and Shell will now have
more freedom to plan their next move against Iran and the wider Muslim
world.
Abid Mustafa is a political commentator who specialises in Muslim affairs