Bush fury as split widens over Iraq (Bush is going to have an aneurism over this, his evidence is not credible IMO)
FRASER NELSON WESTMINSTER EDITOR
news.scotsman.com
GEORGE Bush last night said he had lost patience with the entire weapons inspection process as he rejected a Franco-German plan to treble the size of the United Nations team working in Iraq and the international community split over military action against Baghdad.
The president of the United States said he was no longer interested in "playing hide and seek" with Saddam Hussein and that the only way out of war was for the Iraqi leader to give up his weapons of mass destruction.
Mr Bush’s calls came as Hans Blix, the chief UN inspector, left Iraq saying Saddam has had a change of heart and should be given a chance to make good his fresh promises.
Jacques Chirac, the president of France, yesterday laid down what he billed as a compromise deal agreed with Germany whereby a beefed-up team of UN inspectors would be backed by troops. Russia - one of the five countries, including France, with the power to veto a UN resolution - indicated it would back such a plan if the alternative was US-led military action.
However, Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, flatly rejected the proposal yesterday, saying it misunderstands that the aim is not to find a "smoking gun" but to prove Saddam is intent on cheating the UN.
"I don’t think the next step should be let’s send in more inspectors to be stiffed," he said. "More inspectors doesn’t answer the question and what France has to do and what Germany has to do is read Resolution 1441 again."
Washington and London made clear yesterday that UN Resolution 1441 has been violated as Saddam has been proven to have lied in the "full and final" weapons declaration he made in December.
Mr Blix said Iraq has provided some of the missing names on the list - and provided "papers relating to high-profile issues", including anthrax, VX and ballistic missiles.
He added that this suggested new co-operation, and seemed to back the Franco-German plan. "I would much rather see inspections than some other solution," he said.
Mr Powell, however, said the fresh information proved Saddam had lied or withheld information in the first place - in direct contradiction to Resolution 1441. "We don’t know what those documents are but if they are real, serious documents, they should have been turned over months ago," Mr Powell said.
"Tripling the number of inspectors doesn’t deal with the issue. This idea of more inspectors, or no-fly zones, or whatever else may be in this proposal that is being developed is a diversion, not a solution."
Mr Bush said in a separate meeting with Republicans yesterday that Saddam had built his regime on stringing along weapons inspectors - and that sending in more would play into their hands. "It is important for the country to realise that Saddam Hussein has fooled the world for 12 years," he said. "He wants the world to think that hide and seek is a game we should play, but it’s over."
Germany, which has now taken its turn to chair the UN Security Council, said it would lay down the proposal for more inspectors backed by UN troops and greater aerial support before the Security Council on Friday - the same day as Mr Blix presents his report. If it secures Russia’s support, Germany only needs to woo China to form a majority within the five permanent members - leaving Britain and the US calling for a second UN resolution justifying war.
Condoleezza Rice, the US national security adviser, said that few other members of the UN Security Council would be taken in by Saddam’s last-minute concession.
"People are going to be very sceptical of anything that he does at this point because an 11th-hour conversion has been his modus operandi before," she said.
In December, Iraq submitted a list of 400 names of scientists and others involved in past weapons programmes in the run-up to the Gulf war in 1991. It emerged that Iraq had airbrushed out names that had been included in a similar declaration handed to the UN in 1993.
In London, the Foreign Office said Saddam should be given no more time. "The Foreign Secretary has noted what the chief weapons inspectors have said and looks forward to their more detailed report on Friday," a spokesman said.
"Iraq has known exactly what it has to do for 12 years. This is set out clearly in Resolution 1441."
A separate bid for peace came from the Vatican. Pope John Paul II said he was sending a senior cardinal to Baghdad today to try and agree terms for peace. |
