Posted on 09/27/2002 5:01:29 PM PDT by Momaw Nadon
The United States and Britain are proposing that the United Nations set a seven-day deadline for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to agree to disarm and open his palaces for searches of hidden weapons, a Bush administration official and U.N. diplomats said Friday. President Bush backed a U.N. effort, saying, "I'm willing to give peace a chance."
The tough demands are coupled with a warning that "all necessary means" would be used against Iraq in the event of defiance, the officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Describing the proposed U.N. resolution as tough and detailed, the U.S. official said Iraq would be accused of being in "material breach" of U.N. Security Council resolutions and told it must agree to "full, final and complete destruction" of its weapons of mass destruction. The resolution was being circulated to attract the support of France, Russia and China.
Approval of the resolution is problematic. France, Russia and China each has the power to kill it with a veto, as they are all permanent members of the council. All three prefer giving Iraq another chance to have suspect sites inspected before threats of force are leveled.
Bush called French President Jacques Chirac to try to win his backing. But Chirac resisted, telling Bush he opposed demanding Iraqi compliance and threatening Iraq with military force if it did not.
Chirac, instead, urged Bush to back his own approach of two resolutions: The first would call for weapons inspections, withholding any threats until a second resolution if Iraq balked.
While Secretary of State Colin Powell and other U.S. diplomats strive to gain approval for the resolution, the Bush administration is struggling to persuade Congress to authorize the use of force against Iraq.
Bush said the United Nations should have a chance to force Saddam to give up his weapons of mass destruction before the United States acts on its own against Iraq.
"I'm willing to give peace a chance to work. I want the United Nations to work," Bush said at a Republican fund-raising event in Denver.
But Bush said action must come quickly.
"Now is the time," he said. "For the sake of your children's future we must make sure this madman never has the capacity to hurt us with a nuclear weapon, or to use the stockpiles of anthrax that we know he has, or VX, the biological weapons which he possesses."
At a campaign-style rally later in Flagstaff, Ariz., Bush continued trying to counter accusations of war mongering and partisanship in the debate over Iraq.
"To work for peace — that's my goal," Bush declared. "There are a lot of good people on both sides of the political aisle who understand the task ahead."
"Our last choice is to commit our troops to harm's way. But if we have to, to defend our freedoms, the United States will lead a coalition and do so," Bush told a boisterous crowd gathered in the cold rain to hear him speak.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, meanwhile, joined other senior Democrats in voicing reservations about putting the nation on a path toward war before a new, tougher round of U.N. inspections is launched.
Kennedy, D-Mass., said unconditional U.N. inspections must be given time to work, and that a largely unilateral American war "could worsen, not lessen, the threat of terrorism" by swelling the ranks of al-Qaida sympathizers in the Muslim world.
"War should be a last resort, not a first response," he said in a speech to the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Kennedy's spoke as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld began a series of addresses across the country to justify military force as an option to disarm Iraq and drive Saddam from power. The United States will have "a substantial coalition of countries" by its side if it decides to use military force to oust Saddam, Rumsfeld said in Atlanta.
The resolution jointly proposed by the United States and Britain would give international inspectors the right to designate "no-fly" and "no-drive" zones as off-limits to Iraq.
Currently, there are "no-fly" zones in the north and south of the country patrolled by U.S. and British warplanes.
The resolution would go further in denying Saddam control over parts of his country.
In another jab at the Iraqi leader, the resolution would set aside assurances that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan gave Saddam that his palaces would not be searched by inspectors.
It also would detail Iraq's violations and specify what Baghdad must do to correct them, especially "full, final and complete destruction" of weapons of mass destruction.
Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman, sent to Paris to lobby for French approval, gave officials there a copy of the draft Friday and was due to go on to Moscow.
Congress hopes to take up a resolution next week giving the president the authority to use whatever means necessary, including military force, to eradicate the Iraqi threat to America. Negotiations continue on the wording, with Democrats saying they will not give the president open-ended authority and seeking to put more emphasis on a multilateral approach to the problem.
Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said Friday that he and other top leaders — House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. — would meet or talk by Monday afternoon. "We need to get an agreement on the language early next week," Lott said.
We will.
Same planet, different worlds.
Yes, let's sit back and do nothing about those powers that want to destroy the United States...and hope that we don't make them mad at us. Maybe they won't pull another Sept 11.
What a friggin coward Kennedy is.
What else is there to know.
I believe the French and the Germans are up to their necks in aid to Iraq's military build up and don't want it brought to light.
What else is there to know.
I believe the French and the Germans are up to their necks in aid to Iraq's military build up and don't want it brought to light.
But Bush clearly is not going to accept this six month trial inspection thing, with weeks or months of negotiation beforehand, and THEN have to go back to the UN to say that Iraq isn't complying.
What bull! I hadn't heard this, and of course it's entirely unacceptable to Bush (as it should be to the Dims). Kofi Annan must believe the old saying that a man's home is his castle. In Saddam's case it is.
If the UN and Iraq agree only to have inspectors kick the sand and say "its clean", then it time for the US to say "Let's Roll".
That's way more time than Iraq gave Kuwait.
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