A rchive Date
[ 21-12-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2002/12/20/7956-ap.html
Bush: Iraq not serious about disarmament
By SANDRA SOBIERAJ - Associated Press
Fri, December 20, 2002
WASHINGTON (AP) - President George W. Bush said Friday that Iraq's weapons declaration showed President Saddam Hussein was not serious about disarmament and marked "a disappointing day for those who long for peace."
"We expected him to show that he would disarm and ... it's a long way from there," the president said. Bush has given the go-ahead to double the 50,000 U.S. troop deployment in the Persian Gulf region in early January, a senior administration official said.
Defence Secretary Donald 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."
Bush, meeting with United Nations, European Union and Russian diplomats, said he will work with America's friends to enforce the UN Security Council resolution demanding that Saddam give up his weapons voluntarily - or else be forced to do so by U.S.-led military force.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, who joined the Oval Office talks, had announced on Thursday that the United States found Iraq's declaration full of lies, in violation of Security Council requirements.
Asked whether the United States and Iraq were now on a path toward war, Bush replied: "Yesterday's document was not encouraging." "The world spoke clearly that we expect Mr. Saddam Hussein to disarm," Bush said.
He addressed the Iraqi crisis, which White House spokesman Ari Fleischer described as "deepening," at the opening of talks focused on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
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 UN 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, 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 analyse Saddam's self-inventory but has so far concluded that its omissions constitute a "material breach" of the UN 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. Powell and John Negroponte, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, were taking the lead in what Fleischer called the "deliberate and consult" phase of Bush's showdown with Saddam.
This crucial stage comes to a head Jan. 27 when the UN 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 UN resolution.
U.S. lawmakers counselled against a rush to war.
The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Representative Ike Skelton of Missouri, said Iraq's incomplete declaration, by itself, "is not enough to justify military force."
Senator Chuck Hagel (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 UN ambassador, suggested that Bush may have alienated some Security Council members by declaring on his own that Iraq was in violation of the UN 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.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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