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Saturday, 14 October 2006 |
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General's 'quit Iraq' remarks leave Blair looking isolated
General Sir Richard Dannatt
'Tony Blair was facing isolation over Iraq last night after the Conservatives welcomed calls from the Army's most senior officer for British troops to be withdrawn "sometime soon" and a cross-party alliance of MPs demanded an emergency debate in Parliament.
Ministers and MPs were predicting that Mr Blair would be forced to clarify, over the next few days, some kind of exit strategy for the 7,000 British troops in Iraq to prevent the latest crisis from further destabilising his leadership.
Downing Street spent yesterday trying to downplay talk of a rift between Mr Blair and Gen Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, who said in successive interviews that the presence of British troops was stoking violence and that the Army could "break" under the strain.'
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