Daily Telegraph: Iran mocked Tony Blair yesterday, saying Labour’s drubbing in last week’s local elections was caused by his close alliance with President George W Bush. The Daily Telegraph
By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor
Iran mocked Tony Blair yesterday, saying Labour’s drubbing in last week’s local elections was caused by his close alliance with President George W Bush.
On the eve of a meeting of the world’s major powers to decide how to respond to Teheran’s nuclear defiance, the regime took comfort in the humiliation of one of its major foes.
“The people’s vote showed their opposition to Mr Blair’s policies of following those of the United States,” said the foreign ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi. “The outcome is the result of London blindly following the US policies, including in Iraq.”
Margaret Beckett, appointed Foreign Secretary in Mr Blair’s Cabinet reshuffle, will be thrown into the deep end of international diplomacy when she flies to New York for a dinner tonight with her – colleagues from America, Russia, China, France and Germany.
The six ministers will try to resolve a stalemate over how to compel Iran to halt its uranium enrichment programme, which the West fears is designed to make nuclear weapons.
Iran has defied a non-binding UN Security Council call for it to suspend its nuclear programme.
