Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher
Prime Ministerial Private Office files

TV Interview for ABC

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: Blair House, Washington DC
Source: PREM19/127 (telegram from British Information Service in New York, 18 Dec 1979)
Journalist: Barbara Walters, ABC
Editorial comments:

0900-0930. Full text available on CD-ROM only; extract here on British support for a US approach to UN Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The interview was shown in two parts, the first on 17 December ( World News Tonight ), the second - including the reference to Chapter 7 - on 18 December (Good Morning America). Read other documents selected from this file. The full file from which this item is taken can be seen here - PREM19/127.

Importance ranking: Major
Word count: 182
Themes: Foreign policy (USA), Foreign policy (Middle East)

Extract

Asked how she would have reacted if the British Embassy in Tehran had been seized and British diplomats held hostage, MT replied:

MT:

I think very much the same thing that President Carter has done. You see somehow a surge of anger goes through a nation, but it also has to be accompanied by a very careful analysis, if I might use that word. And you have to say what is best to help the hostages, what is best to see that we get them home safe and sound. And that feeling has to temper everything you do. And it stops you hitting out in any way. In the position we are now in it is vital that we all act together, and I believe that that is the next stage that the United States will be considering, again tempered by what is the timing, what will be the effect on the hostages there and on the Iranian Government’s attitude towards the hostages. But if America wants to go to the United Nations to Chapter 7 which is the one which enables the Security Council to take action, there will need to be a good deal of drafting, but America can count on British support.