/ 14 September 2002

US action against Iraq within ‘days and weeks’

US President George Bush has urged the United Nations to fix a deadline for action against Iraq in ”days and weeks”, but Baghdad is pursuing more talks with the world body to try to avoid war.

”We must have deadlines, and we’re talking days and weeks, not months and years,” Bush told reporters on Friday.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the Security Council permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — had agreed there must be a time limit but none has yet been set.

Iraq and the United Nations are set to hold talks about the disarmament process ”in three or four days”, Arab League general secretary Amr Musa said on Saturday.

UN chief Kofi Annan would ”resume discussions” with Iraq’s Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, Musa told Al-Hayat newspaper.

With the dialogue continuing, there was no need for any new UN resolution against Baghdad as proposed by Bush, he told the London-based daily.

Sabri would ”carry a message from his government” about the inspectors’ return, Musa said, adding: ”We have to allow some time,” for the talks.

”If the minister arrives with a clear acceptance (of the inspectors’ return), there will be a need only … to prepare for the return of the inspectors.

”We hope that the situation will lead to a return of the inspectors to be able to avoid the current threats,” from Washington, which has set out a pre-emptive strike policy to overthrow President Saddam Hussein.

Bush, who warned the UN General Assembly on Thursday that US action against Baghdad was ”unavoidable” unless Saddam was disarmed, added that he was ”highly doubtful” that the Iraqi leader would meet demands to let inspectors back in.

Bush demanded Iraq scrap weapons of mass destruction, halt support for terrorism, stop persecuting Iraq’s civilian population, free or account for non-Iraqis missing since the 1991 Gulf war and end efforts to circumvent UN economic sanctions.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz hit back accusing Bush of ”lies and slanders”.

Baghdad would not accept demands for the unconditional return of weapons inspectors, Aziz told Dubai-based MBC television. Iraq will ”teach (the Americans) a lesson” if attacked, he said.

The UN General Assembly on Friday discussed how to take up the US challenge for action on Iraq, while Arab states urged Baghdad to let UN arms inspectors back in.

Russia and China, which wield veto power at the Security Council, reiterated that the Iraqi problem must be settled through the United Nations, but stayed silent on the possible threat of US military action. Yet neither challenged Bush’s threat.

”Experience shows that no matter how complex international crises and conflicts may be … they can be settled with the aid of UN instruments and on the basis of international law,” Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said, addressing the assembly.

His Chinese counterpart, Tang Jiaxuan, argued that Beijing stood for ”a political settlement of the question of Iraq,” adding that ”the United Nations should play an important role in this regard”.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has also warned the United States against taking unilateral action against Iraq.

But US Secretary of State Colin Powell said he thought the UN would take Iraq more seriously now because of Bush’s challenge.

Egypt seemed to distance itself from Baghdad, with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urging Saddam to ”grab the opportunity” and allow weapons experts to return.

Failure to do so would ”lead to disastrous consequences” for Iraq and the Middle East at large, he warned.

His foreign minister, Ahmed Maher, said Cairo would have to give reluctant support to military action against Iraq if it was endorsed by the UN.

But Maher added that Egypt feared ”a military strike would destabilise the Middle East”.

In his speech on Thursday, Bush left Saddam a chance to avoid strikes by swiftly complying with the 16 UN resolutions to which he agreed to end the 1991 Gulf war.

The Gulf state of Qatar, meanwhile, made clear it would consider allowing the United States to launch a military offensive from one of its bases.

”We still don’t have a direct request from the United States” to use air bases in Qatar, Sheikh Hamad told CNN.

But ”when we (get) this direct request, we can discuss it and see how we can (respond to) it,” he said, stressing Doha’s ”very close relationship with the United States”.

”We consider the United States our ally,” he said, but more importantly, ”as a small country, we also rely on the United States’ power (protection) in our region”.

A US air operations centre capable of running an air war is reportedly near completion in Qatar, offering a back-up should Washington be denied the use of a similar centre at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, which has been outspoken in opposing the use of force against Baghdad. -Sapa-AFP