Bush rang Blair complaining about Straw - now he's sacked

Ewen MacAskill, the Guardian's diplomatic editor, seems to concur with the db view [see previous post] that Straw was sacked because of his opposition to a military strike on Iran. Whilst EM is happy to assume that Blair and Bush are leaving all options on the table 'to keep Iran guessing' [like they were keeping Saddam guessing] he reveals the hitherto unknown fact [to us] that Blair had received phone calls from the White House enquiring why Straw 'kept saying these things' - and that was before he rightly declared that a nuclear strike on Iran would be 'nuts'. So there, he had to go - Bush said so!

The key to the demotion of Jack Straw from foreign secretary is Iran. Mr Straw for more than a year, in his favourite outlet the BBC Today programme or at various press conferences, said repeatedly a military strike on Iran was inconceivable.

Politicians always try to avoid boxing themselves in, but Straw did on this issue: if a military strike had become a serious option, he would have been forced to resign.

He was reflecting the reality of British domestic politics. Against the background of the Iraq debacle, Mr Straw knew it would be difficult to win support for the military option in cabinet and that it would create even more upheaval among the membership of the already weakened Labour party.

The problem for Mr Straw is that Tony Blair does not view Iran the same way. He regards the threat posed by Iran as the most serious in the world today, and is even more messianic on the issue than George Bush. That does not mean that a military strike will happen but Mr Blair, like Mr Bush, thinks it is a good idea to keep the option on the table, if only to keep Iran guessing.

Downing Street phoned the Foreign Office several times to ask Mr Straw to stop being so categoric in ruling out a military strike. And the White House also phoned Downing Street to ask why Mr Straw kept saying these things. And that was before Mr Straw dismissed as "nuts" the prospect of a tactical nuclear strike on Iran, an option that Mr Bush subsequently refused to remove from the table. Link