White House - AP Cabinet & State
U.S. Urges U.N. to Authorize War in Iraq
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URL:http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=542&ncid=716&e=2&u=/ap/20021220/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq
By SANDRA SOBIERAJ, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration, concluding that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) is not serious about disarmament, turned Friday to convincing the U.N. Security Council that it should declare Iraq in violation of world demands and authorize war.
At the same time, a senior administration official said Friday that President Bush (news - web sites) has given the go-ahead to double the 50,000 U.S. troop deployment in the Persian Gulf region in early January. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is expected to sign the formal deployment order in the next week or two as part of what another official called "a ramping up on various fronts."
The Iraq crisis has entered a new stage and is "deepening" now that Iraq has given the world a weapons inventory full of lies, gaps and omissions, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) declared Friday.
"This situation cannot continue," Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said in describing the 12,200-page Iraqi document submitted two weeks ago.
Unless Iraq "comes clean" in the weeks ahead, "I'm afraid we should be very discouraged with respect to the prospects of finding a peaceful solution," Powell said on Thursday.
If military conflict is now more likely, it is not imminent, other senior U.S. officials said.
Bush will spend the next five or six weeks in pursuit of more evidence against Saddam while massing troops outside Iraq for a potential winter assault, these officials said on condition of anonymity.
Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix complained to the British Broadcasting Corp. that the United States and Britain have not given inspectors the support they need — chiefly, intelligence on where Iraqis are allegedly hiding their weapons materiel. In response, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer pointed Friday to Powell's promise that the United States will provide additional intelligence to make the inspectors' hunt "more targeted and effective."
The United States will continue to analyze Saddam's self-inventory but has so far concluded that its omissions constitute a "material breach" of the U.N. resolution that compelled Iraq to disclose its deadly weapons, Powell said.
Although the term "material breach" is widely interpreted as a prelude to war, Powell said there is no "calendar deadline" to disarm Iraq by force.
Bush was expected to offer his own public comment on Iraq's declaration, largely echoing Powell, during a meeting Friday afternoon with U.N., Russian and European Union (news - web sites) diplomats who are in Washington to consult on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Bush could also use the meeting to lobby the foreign ministers and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) on Iraq, White House aides said.
Powell and John Negroponte, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (news - web sites), were taking the lead in what White House spokesman Ari Fleischer called the "deliberate and consult" phase of Bush's showdown with Saddam.
This crucial stage comes to a head Jan. 27 when the U.N. weapons inspectors report their findings and Bush decides whether to go to war.
Negroponte said he would consult with the Security Council and other American allies, while Powell insisted that the inspectors spirit Iraqi scientists and their families out of Iraq, where they might testify freely — and in safety — to Saddam's pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, as allowed for under the U.N. resolution.
U.S. lawmakers counseled against a rush to war.
The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Ike Skelton (news, bio, voting record) of Missouri, said Iraq's incomplete declaration, by itself, "is not enough to justify military force."
Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record), R-Neb., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said it is "important the United States stay patient here, stay within the framework of the United Nations, work with allies, and see where we go."
But Illinois Republican Henry Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said Iraq made a bad-faith declaration that "brings us closer to a war that no one wants, but only Saddam Hussein can prevent."
Sergey Lavrov, Russia's U.N. ambassador, suggested that Bush may have alienated some Security Council members by declaring on his own that Iraq was in violation of the U.N. resolution.
"It is for the Security Council to make the judgment," not a single country, Lavrov said.
In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Saddam had his "finger on the trigger" of war. But, Straw added, "this disclosure does not, of itself, trigger military action."
In Paris, French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin said that if Iraq reneges on its commitments to disarm, "the Security Council, on the basis of the report of (the inspectors), should be called together to examine the array of options, including the use of force."
The French official also told France-Info radio that "if the international community decided to act, obviously, France would uphold its commitments."
France had insisted that the Security Council resolution approved last month include the "two-step" process whereby the council reconvenes to decide consequences of any Iraqi violations.
Powell indicated Thursday that Bush was abiding by that process, saying the United States will "make the case to the council that Iraq has totally missed this opportunity" for peaceful resolution. |
