Did Bush Force British Minister Out?

London Papers: Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's Iran Stance Prompted Angry Bush Call To Blair

(CBS/AP) 
"The reason why we're opposed to military action is because it's an infinitely worse option and there's no justification for it," Straw said.

Straw came to his job as Britain's foreign secretary with little experience in international relations, just months before the Sept. 11 attacks opened a new era in world affairs.

He played a central role in making the case for war in Iraq and has struggled since to help stabilize the country. But he privately questioned whether the U.S.-led invasion was wise, according to the so-called "Downing Street memos" leaked last year.

The Foreign Office, home to Britain's foreign policy mandarins, has always tussled with the prime minister for control over decision-making on international affairs. Blair, for whom foreign policy has been a central concern, may have felt Straw was too sympathetic to the diplomats' preference for negotiated solutions and wary of his own tougher stance and that of his close ally, Mr. Bush.

"Jack Straw was a little more skeptical about the Iraq war than Tony Blair," said Martin Bright, political editor at the left-leaning New Statesman magazine. "Also Jack Straw was a focus of power in the (Labour) Party, he had his own power base, he was a potential rival to the prime minister."

Straw now becomes leader of the House of Commons and takes responsibility for overhauling the House of Lords and campaign finance reform, two big issues. The parliamentary post, a clear demotion, was also where his predecessor, Robin Cook, was parked after Blair replaced him with Straw in June 2001.

Margaret Beckett, formerly environment secretary, will head the foreign office, becoming the first woman to hold the job.

She has no foreign policy background beyond her participation in international talks on global warming, but is an experienced politician deeply loyal to Blair.

The foreign secretary's reservations about invading Iraq featured prominently in the Downing Street memos, written in 2002 and leaked last year.

Straw wrote in a memo to Blair that he would have a tough time convincing the Labour Party that a pre-emptive strike against Iraq was legal under international law.

"We have also to answer the big question: what will this action achieve?" he wrote. "There seems to be a larger hole in this than on anything."

Nonetheless, he filled his role as the public face of Britain's foreign policy and had warm relationships with successive U.S. secretaries of state, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice's farewell call to Straw "was from her perspective, I think, a bittersweet call. ... She had no better or closer colleague than Jack Straw."

Straw, known as a canny politician, counted his role in helping Turkey start entry negotiations with the European Union last year as one of his proudest achievements in office. He said building close ties with the moderate Muslim nation was crucial to encouraging it to remain friendly to the West rather than turning to extremism.