US will have access to 21 countries in war: State Dept

ProLog ^ | Jan. 30, 2003 | Agence France Presse

[FairOpinion]

WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (AFP) - The United States will have access to 21 countries should Washington go to war against Iraq, while 20 countries are committed to allow overflights, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Thursday.

The United States, Armitage told the Senate Foreign Relations panel, would have "full access to 21 countries" and additional countries were "under discussion".

"Twenty countries are fully committed, and three partially committed to overflights," he added.

He declined to give any further details of the level of international cooperation the United States would have if it decided to use military force to disarm Iraq.

With the US troop buildup in the Gulf reaching critical mass, Armitage underlined the administration's view that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein did not have much time left to disarm peacefully.

"He's got to make that choice in a hurry," Armitage said.

Secretary of State Colin Powell is to present new evidence against Baghdad to the UN Security Council on February 5 to persuade US allies as yet reluctant to move against Iraq militarily.

US ambassador to the UN John Negroponte, present at the same hearing, said Washington would be "taking the temperature" of its council colleagues after Powell's speech.

"I think we're going to enter a dynamic stage of diplomacy," he said.

Armitage told the lawmakers that Powell would be giving the world details on Iraq's dealings with weapons of mass destruction and terrorist groups, information on terrorist groups operating in Iraq, and intelligence on mobile biological and chemical weapons labs.

"This is one of the things Secretary Powell is working feverishly on to get a level of declassification."

"What Secretary Powell is going to attempt to do ... is to try to fill in the blanks" left by UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix's references to Saddam Hussein's non-cooperation with inspectors, Armitage said.

Armitage added that while the United States did not feel it was necessary to seek a second UN resolution on military action, he did acknowledge that "it would be desirable."

[FairOpinion]

We will have plenty of support. France and Germany can suffer the consequences of their actions.

[B-bone]

So much for the unilateral action complainers.

[Shermy]

So much for the unilateral action complainers.

Nope. Now they're shifting demands to full UN Security Council approval.

[AmericanInTokyo]

"Hello, sir, my name is Jaques Montagne, business manager from Frogg Construction Pvt. Ltd. Paris, and this is my colleague Deitrich Schultz from Stuttgart Engineers GMBH, and we are here for the registration documents to sign up for the major post-war Iraq infrastructure engineering contract awards. What? Go back to the end of the line? You'll call our names when? Wha-What do you mean, 'in 20 Years'???"

[speedy]

Love it. Sacre bleu!!