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Iraq Cautions Arabs As
Bush Threatens 'Full Force'

By Will Dunham
10-10-2

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





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