LATEST DEVELOPMENTS ON IRAQ
URL: usatoday.com
• President Bush will use a U.N. speech Thursday to demand that Iraq admit weapons inspectors and to urge world leaders to insist on Saddam Hussein's compliance, U.S. officials said. Bush intends to cite a list of at least a dozen instances in which the Iraqi president defied U.N. resolutions calling for inspections of suspected weapons sites and for disarmament. At the same time, Bush hopes to gather support from reluctant allies and others for using force against Iraq. Bush's strategists, meanwhile, are considering setting a deadline with serious consequences if Saddam balks.
• In the latest signal that the Bush administration is willing to give diplomacy one final chance before a possible military attack on Iraq, White House officials said Monday that they were encouraged by signs of international support for a tougher stance on returning United Nations weapons inspectors to Iraq. U.S. officials said a proposal outlined by French President Jacques Chirac to return inspectors to Iraq was a sign that President Bush is winning converts as he prepares to speak Thursday to the United Nations. The administration believes that only the removal of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, not new weapons inspections, can meet the threat of Iraqi use of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.
• Iraq challenged the United States on Monday to produce "one piece of evidence" that Baghdad is producing weapons of mass destruction. Iraqi officials also took reporters on two tours in an attempt to refute accusations President Saddam Hussein is rebuilding sites linked to past nuclear efforts and training terrorists. The head of a U.N. atomic weapons team, Jacques Baute, said Friday that satellite photos show unexplained new construction at several sites the team used to visit when it was still allowed into Iraq for inspections. Baute did not identify the sites in his comments. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bush's main ally in the Iraq standoff, has cited the satellite photos as proof Saddam had a weapons of mass destruction program that posed a threat. Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said such assessments "are pretexts for ... aggression against our country, they know very well that these are false pretexts, false accusations."
• President Bush pressed the U.S. case against Iraq's Saddam Hussein with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien Monday, but won no commitments, Bush's spokesman said. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, talking to reporters after Bush and Chretien held private talks in Detroit following a public border-security appearance, said that Bush ''didn't ask him for anything in the meeting.'' Fleischer's description came as the Bush administration continued its attempt to build a case for action against Iraq. Fleischer said Monday that Bush presented his case to Chretien by pointing out that Iraq remains in violation of U.N. resolutions. But Bush's spokesman said he could report no progress in swaying Chretien. Fleischer did say that Bush asked Chretien to listen to his speech to the United Nations Thursday, but said, ''The president didn't ask Canada to change their view.''
• Allied aircraft struck Iraq for the third time in a week, bombing a military facility southeast of Baghdad Monday morning, defense officials said. The attack came after Iraqi forces fired on one of the U.S.-British patrols in the no-fly zone, and it followed bombings on Thursday and Saturday, Pentagon officials said. It brought to 37 the number of strikes reported this year by the United States and the United Kingdom coalition put together to patrol zones in the north and south of Iraq following the 1991 Gulf War.
• The leaders of the two main Kurdish factions that control northern Iraq have signed a reconciliation agreement as the United States tries to forge a united front against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The two Kurdish factions run an autonomous enclave in northern Iraq and can mobilize some 75,000 fighters but have been deeply divided despite their hostility toward Saddam. The United States has been trying to push the groups to work together for years. Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, and Massoud Barzani, head of the KDP, met this weekend in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Irbil to discuss ways of working together and resolving their differences. The meeting was the first open meeting between the two in three years. |
