Short warns Blair: Don't kill Iraqi innocents

Clare Short, the International Development Secretary, today delivered her most powerful warning yet about the dangers of going to war against Iraq, putting new pressure on the Prime Minister as he prepares to make his case for military action in Tuesday's emergency Commons debate.

In an interview with GMTV this morning, Ms Short said: "We cannot have another Gulf war. We cannot have the people of Iraq suffering again. They have suffered too much. That would be wrong."

Her remarks follow those of Robin Cook, Leader of the Commons, who warned Tony Blair not to back unilateral US military action.

Mr Blair's attempts to build a consensus within the Commons will be further frustrated by the publication of an inconclusive dossier of evidence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Government insiders admit the document will neither link Saddam Hussein's regime to al-Qa'ida and the 11 September terror attacks nor prove that he has a nuclear bomb. Ministers say it will not quell growing dissent over the threat of war, which is even taking hold among some prominent Conservatives. Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the Conservative former foreign secretary, said he had serious concerns about unilateral action. "I can see very powerful advantages in regime change in Iraq, but I would be reluctant to see the United States going in by itself or with just the United Kingdom or a handful of other countries."

Ms Short, speaking on the Sunday programme said: "We have to find a way of enforcing, quite rightly, UN resolutions. Saddam Hussein should be frightened, and the elite around him. We should frighten them.

"We should be ready to impose the will of the United Nations on them if they don't co-operate, but not by hurting the people of Iraq.

"Each one of them is as precious as the 3,000 people in the twin towers. We can't sacrifice them to putting it right," she said.

While a groundswell of British opinion builds up around the need for UN backing for military strikes, Baghdad issued a statement making clear it would not co-operate with any new UN Security Council resolution that ran contrary to an agreement reached with the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.

The statement, issued after a meeting of Iraqi leaders chaired by Saddam Hussein, is being seen by the US and British governments as an act of defiance and further evidence that the Iraqi leader cannot be trusted. It came only days after Iraq had offered to allow UN weapons inspectors – withdrawn in 1998 – unconditional access in Iraq.

The Iraqi declaration came as the US forces commander Tommy Franks said in Kuwait that his forces were "prepared to do whatever we are asked". He insisted, however, that no final decision had been taken. And, just days before publication of Mr Blair's 55-page dossier – seen as vital in persuading the public and hostile MPs that action must be taken – Whitehall sources admitted it is "not a magic wand".

In Washington, one of the key pieces of "evidence" in the Bush administration's case for military action was being questioned by a number of leading US scientists. Both governments, however, are said to be "confident" that there has been a shift of opinion in favour of military action.

Even so, the British government appreciates a continuing need to "go out and make the case", especially in the run-up to the Labour Party conference in Blackpool next week.

Though the dossier is expected to show an increase in Iraq's chemical and biological weapons capability and claim evidence of a nuclear programme, government sources admit it is unlikely to sway all the doubters. "We can only make our case. It is not in our power to determine what others make of it," one said.