US President George Bush will tell the United Nations (UN) next week that United States will act on its own to disarm Iraq unless world leaders take action to do so, the Washington Post reported Saturday.
Bush will deliver the hardline message at the UN General Assembly on Thursday, amid growing debate over when the UN should set a deadline for Iraq to readmit arms inspectors.
The dominant view within the Bush administration is that the time for inspections has passed and that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who has barred inspectors since 1998, will have to be forcibly deposed.
But White House officials have apparently been persuaded that working through the United Nations may open the door to a possible new round of UN inspections of Iraqi facilities suspected of harbouring biological, chemical and other forms of weapons, the daily reported.
If Iraq refuses to comply, this in turn may ultimately
facilitate joint international military action against Baghdad, according to the newspaper.
The Bush administration has maintained that only the removal of Saddam can ensure safety from the weapons of mass destruction it accuses him of retaining or trying to develop.
Bush on Friday telephoned the leaders of Russia, China and France to promote his campaign to oust Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein, but made little apparent progress.
Bush made 10-minute phone calls to Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Jiang Zemin of China and Jacques Chirac of France to emphasise the ”need to make the world more peaceful,” according to White House representative Ari Fleischer.
Chirac’s representative Catherine Colonna said the French leader again insisted that any military action against Iraq have UN approval, while top Kremlin representative Alexei Gromov said Putin expressed ”serious doubts” about Bush’s arguments for striking Iraq during their conversation, Interfax news agency reported.
China has in the past stated its opposition to military action against Baghdad.
Fleischer said US envoys would be dispatched to each of the other four Security Council capitals for more consultations about Iraq after Bush addresses the United Nations on September 12. – Sapa-AFP