- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President
George W. Bush vowed to use the "full force and fury" of the
U.S. military if necessary to make Iraq disarm, but Baghdad warned fellow
Arab states on Wednesday that any such strike would rebound on them.
-
- As U.N. Security Council members discussed a resolution
to force President Saddam Hussein to cooperate with a new mission by U.N.
arms inspectors in Iraq, Bush said the world faced a "fundamental
question...do we deal with this guy or not?"
-
- "We'll see whether or not the United Nations has
the desire, has the backbone necessary to uphold its own resolutions and
help keep the peace," Bush said on Tuesday in Knoxville, Tennessee.
-
- "But if they're unable to act, and if Saddam Hussein
can't do what he said he would do, which is disarm, this country will lead
a coalition and disarm him, for the sake of peace."
-
- "Committing our military into harm's way is my last
choice," Bush added. "But I want you to know that if we have
to commit our military -- and we may not have to -- but if we have to,
then we'll have the best plans, the full force and fury of the United States
military will be unleashed."
-
- The United States and Britain are pushing a U.N. resolution
that would give sweeping powers to inspectors looking for chemical, biological
and nuclear weapons in Iraq, and threaten force if Saddam did not comply.
But France, Russia and China want a weaker text.
-
- British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw arrived in Iran
on Wednesday on the last leg of a four-nation Middle East tour to seek
support for the U.S.-British line.
-
- The Arab countries Straw visited -- Egypt, Jordan and
Kuwait -- responded coolly and Iraq has sought to play on their fears.
-
- Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, visiting Syria as part
of a quest for Arab backing, said on Wednesday that no Arab country should
expect to escape unscathed from a U.S. strike on Iraq, even if it cooperated
with Washington in such a campaign.
-
- "No Arab country is free of the threat, even if
it takes part alongside America in the aggression against Iraq," Aziz
told reporters in Damascus.
-
- "Don't think that (they are safe) if they make nice
statements and offer bases to the Americans. When the crime ends, they
will be made to submit to America and Zionism," Aziz said.
-
- "MAKE YOU BEG"
-
- In Baghdad, Saddam was quoted by the official Iraqi News
Agency on Tuesday as saying Bush's threats stemmed from his inability to
make Iraqis beg for forgiveness.
-
- "Bush was unable to twist your arm and make you
beg saying, 'We beg your pardon, sir, we will not repeat what we have done',"
the agency quoted Saddam as telling the Iraqi people.
-
- On Wednesday, Iraq's state-controlled press slammed an
earlier speech by Bush on Monday, in which he warned of a growing threat
to America from Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, as "lies
and fabrication".
-
- In his Knoxville speech, Bush said Iraq's alleged arsenal
of chemical and biological weapons and bid to acquire nuclear arms would
pose an unthinkable threat to America if such weapons came into the hands
of attackers like those who struck the United States on September 11, 2001.
-
- The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), however,
in a letter made public on Tuesday, said the probability of Saddam initiating
an attack on the United States without provocation in the foreseeable future
was "very low".
-
- But if attacked, the likelihood he would respond with
biological or chemical weapons was "pretty high", it told the
Senate Intelligence Committee in response to a request that it declassify
parts of its secret assessment on Iraq.
-
- CIA Director George Tenet said he saw "no inconsistency"
between the agency's view of Saddam's threat and the views expressed by
Bush.
-
- The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is
slated on Thursday to pass a resolution authorising a possible strike on
Iraq. The measure's progress is slower, however, in the Democratic-led
Senate.
-
- Secretary of State Colin Powell appeared on Capitol Hill
on Tuesday with Democratic and Republican supporters of the resolution
to urge passage of the measure without amendments and by wide margins to
strengthen Bush's hand against Saddam.
-
- "I'm looking for solid, overwhelming support to
signal American determination, and I think the resolution in its current
form gives us what we need," Powell told reporters.
-
- U.N. LETTER TO IRAQ
-
- Following the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq pledged to give up
any weapons of mass destruction. U.N. inspectors searched for such arms
in Iraq until December 1998, when they left with their mission incomplete
amid alleged Iraqi obstruction.
-
- Hans Blix, the chief U.N. arms inspector, has now sent
a letter to Iraqi presidential adviser General Amir al-Saadi, specifying
what Iraq must do to ensure "immediate, unconditional and unrestricted"
access to suspected weapons sites.
-
- The letter, distributed to U.N. Security Council members,
set down in detail for the first time agreements reached by U.N. inspectors
and Iraqi arms officials, led by Saadi, in Vienna last week. It covered
a wide range of issues, including the right to use spy planes and to stage
surprise inspections.
-
- At the United Nations, France submitted new proposals
on Tuesday for a Security Council resolution, but diplomats said they did
not appear to go far enough to satisfy U.S. demands.
-
- In Moscow, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Russia would
back proposals that would make the U.N. arms inspectors more effective.
But one of his deputies said Russia remained opposed to the tough U.S.
proposals and favoured France's position.
-
-
-
- Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly
prohibited without the written consent of Reuters Limited
|