MEDIA REACTION IRAQ - CALL FOR BLAIR TO RESIGN;

UNCLAS HARARE 001840 SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/PDPA FOR DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS IRAQ FOR SMITH, PINESS AND ROOKARD NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER LONDON FOR GURNEY PARIS FOR NEARY NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL KPAO KMDR ZI SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION IRAQ - CALL FOR BLAIR TO RESIGN; HARARE ¶1. Under headline "Blair lacks moral fiber to remain in office" the pro-government weekly "The Sunday Mirror" dedicated its September 7 to calling on British Prime Minister Tony Blair to resign over his decision to commit Britain to military action in Iraq. Excerpts: ¶2. "Does Tony Blair still have the legitimacy to remain at Number 10 Downing Street following damning reports that he `sexed' up the dossier on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction in order to justify war? His world now seems to be crumbling around him as he continues to be dogged by resignations of some key officials in his regime over the same issue. . .To add to his woes, the Hutton Judicial Inquiry into the mysterious death of government weapons adviser David Kelly, heard evidence that during the run up to the Gulf war Blair tried to persuade the British Parliament that Saddam Hussein was a serious threat to world peace. The issue is that Blair lied in order to justify a war that subsequently killed more than ten thousand people in Iraq, and the honorable thing for him to do is to resign now." SULLIVAN