HAD WE BUT WORLD ENOUGH, AND TIME

We are not with you and we don't believe you (Patrick Wintour, April 30, 2003, The Guardian)

Tony Blair's first public attempt to heal the diplomatic wounds of the Iraq war suffered a humiliating rebuff yesterday when Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, refused to lift UN sanctions and mocked the possibility that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq.

Mr Putin also clashed with Mr Blair by demanding UN weapons inspectors be allowed back into Iraq and challenged Mr Blair's vision of a new world strategic partnership, arguing it would be unacceptable for the US to dominate the international community.

The public dressing down for Mr Blair came during a 63-minute press conference staged by the two men at Mr Putin's private residence outside Moscow. The two men had a fabled special relationship and Mr Blair had high hopes he would be able to wean Mr Putin away from his new anti-war alliance with France and Germany.

Mr Blair started with the full diplomatic niceties but became increasingly animated until he issued a dire warning of a new world order in which two different poles of power act as rivals to one another. The world faced a choice between a partnership between the US and the main countries of the world or a continued "diplomatic stand off", he said.

Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush should just back off while Mr. Putin plays coy. A couple years of alliance with the French and Germans will drive the Russians back into our arms. We only really need them if there's a wider conflagration in the Middle East anyway, and at that point they'd have no choice but to help because of their own Islamicist problems on their borders. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 30, 2003 11:39 AM