PRESS RELEASE 26/04/2005

STOP THE WAR COALITION ELECTION DEMANDS

Stop The War Coalition  welcomes the fact that the lies surrounding the legality and the legitimacy of the war with Iraq have come back centre stage in the run-up to the election.

But we are outraged that, in the face of the overwhemling evidence that he contrived reasons for war with Iraq, Tony Blair now refuses to rule out a future war with Iran.

Stop The War demands that

* if  re-elected, the Prime Minister, will promise that  in the face of US"plans" to wage war with another sovereign state he will not connive to lend British support.

* all legal opinion for concerning wars must be published

*to know whether procedures have already been put into place to ensure British troops withdraw from Iraq by December of this year in accordance with the UN mandate.

"An opinion poll in today's Independent shows 60 per cent of voters want the our troops out of Iraq by Christmas in when the current UN mandate expires," said StW spokesman Chris Nineham."If they are to be home by Christmas, then an order must go out pretty soon otherwise we must be planning to break another UN mandate.

"As yet more evidence piles up to show how phoney the justification was for
war with Iraq, all Blair does is shrug his shoulders and say, 'A decision had to be made.'

"We want to ensure that there can not be a repeat performance of such decision making. He uses  Condoleeza Rices words to ay say there are no plans for a war with Iran but clearly they cannot be trusted. Should "plans" develop then we want an up front assurance that he will say "No!"

"And we believe the precedent for not publishing legal evidence to support the case for this war - and all future wars - should be overturned immediately."

ends

Note to desks: Chris Nineham is available for interview as is StW co-founder
John Rees.

Contact:  Carmel Brown on 07718 155105