LONDON, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron
postponed on Thursday a much-anticipated speech on Britain’s
future role in the European Union because of the hostage crisis
at an Algerian gas plant where Britons are believed to be among
those held.
Cameron warned people to expect “bad news” after Algerian
forces launched an operation to free the hostages.
“The Algerian armed forces have now attacked this compound,”
Cameron told BBC TV. “It is a very dangerous, a very uncertain,
a very fluid situation and I think we have to prepare ourselves
for the possibility of bad news ahead.”
His speech, which he had been due to make in Amsterdam, had
been eagerly awaited by lawmakers and Britons as well as by
officials and politicians across Europe.
“Due to events in Algeria, Prime Minister David Cameron’s
speech in the Netherlands tomorrow has been postponed,” his
office said in a statement.
Algerian sources said twenty-five foreign hostages escaped
and six were killed in a battle with militants demanding a halt
to a French military operation against fellow al Qaeda-linked
Islamist fighters in neighbouring Mali.
Britain and Norway, whose oil firms BP and Statoil
run the plant jointly with Algeria’s state oil company,
said they had been informed by the Algerian authorities that a
military operation was under way.
However, a spokesman for Cameron had earlier said the
British prime minister had phoned his Algerian counterpart to
express his concern at what he called a “very grave and serious”
situation, and said Britain would have “preferred” to have been
informed of the operation in advance.
“We face a very bad situation at this BP gas compound in
Algeria,” Cameron said.
