Split Over Iraq War Deepens as U.S. Digs In
By Alan Elsner and Mark John
UNITED NATIONS/PARIS (Reuters) - The United States said on Wednesday it would disarm Iraq (news - web sites) with or without United Nations (news - web sites) backing, after France, Russia and Germany vowed to block a Security Council resolution authorizing war.
Both sides raised the stakes in a tense and increasingly bitter tug of war about whether the world body should give 300,000 U.S. and allied troops, who have gathered in the Gulf region, a green light to invade Iraq and destroy the government of President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).
In Washington, President Bush (news - web sites) reviewed battle plans with top advisers, including Army Gen. Tommy Franks, who would lead U.S. troops if Bush gives the order to attack.
Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) called on the Security Council to pass a U.S.-British draft resolution stating that Iraq had violated its obligation to give up all its weapons of mass destruction.
However he made it clear that Washington reserved the right to attack Iraq even if they could not pass the resolution.
"If the Security Council is unable to take action, despite our best efforts to work with it, we must in the interests of our own safety and, we believe, the safety of the region and the world, reserve the option to act with a coalition of willing nations if the Council does not act," Powell said in a speech to a Washington think-tank.
"If Saddam leaves us no choice but to disarm him by force, the United States and our coalition partners will do our utmost to do it quickly and do it in a way that minimizes the loss of civilian life or destruction of property," he said.
Powell said Saddam still had a very short time to make a strategic decision to disarm but nothing Washington had seen suggested he would do so.
In Paris, France, Germany and Russia teamed up to oppose the war resolution. France and Russia as well as China have veto power in the 15-member Council, so a 'no' vote by any of them would defeat the motion.
Flanked by his counterparts from Russia and Germany, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said, "We will not allow the passage of a planned resolution which would authorize the use of force."
But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said Bush remained confident the resolution would pass. Some U.S. officials believe France and Russia are bluffing and will ultimately not use their vetoes.
The high-stakes diplomatic struggle has strained transatlantic relationships that have stood firm for almost 60 years since the end of the Second World War. Meanwhile, a powerful international anti-war movement has mobilized millions of people around the world against the U.S. plan, putting pressure on some of the government supporting Washington.
The United States hopes to bring the resolution to a vote by the end of next week but so far only has the public support of Britain, Spain and Bulgaria. It needs nine votes to pass and no vetoes.
SIX ON FENCE
France, Russia, Germany, China and Syria will definitely not support the resolution. The other six Security Council members -- Mexico, Chile, Pakistan, Cameroon, Guinea and Angola -- are still uncommitted and all had expressed unhappiness at recent talk by Bush that his aim was now to get rid of Saddam, a U.N. diplomat said.
The next big showdown is likely to come on Friday when Powell, Villepin and many of their colleagues will be at the United Nations to hear U.N. weapons inspectors deliver their latest report on Iraqi disarmament.
It is likely to be a mixed picture once again. U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix told reporters on Wednesday Iraq had been more cooperative recently in helping inspectors and by destroying al-Samoud missiles but he still could not say that Baghdad had accounted for all of its biological weapons.
While he said there were still many open questions about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, Blix refused to join in the blanket U.S. condemnation of Iraqi cooperation.
Powell dismissed the destruction of missiles, saying Iraq was hiding machinery to secretly make more and planned to resume production of the banned weapons as soon as it could.
SECRET INTELLIGENCE
"From recent intelligence we know that the Iraqi regime intends to declare and destroy only a portion of its banned al-Samoud inventory," he told the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"It has in fact ordered the continued production of the missiles that you see being destroyed... It has also begun to hide machinery it can use to convert other kinds of engines to power al-Samouds," Powell said.
The missiles were deemed illegal for breaching U.N. range limits. Iraq destroyed nine more on Wednesday, bringing to 28 the number scrapped. Baghdad had about 120 of the missiles, with about 50 deployed.
France, Germany and Russia have argued persistently that U.N. weapons inspectors, who returned to Iraq in November after a four-year absence, were succeeding in disarming Iraq and needed more time to complete the task.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites), an ardent backer of Bush, said there was no change in plans to push a vote on the U.S.-British resolution.
Opposition to U.S. plans to wage war persists around the world. In Australia, thousands of screaming, whistling, chanting school students staged anti-war protests across the country, calling Prime Minister John Howard, one of Bush's staunchest allies, a warmonger.
Half a million Egyptians attended a government-sponsored peace rally in Cairo.
Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II urged the world to help avert another "dramatic conflict" in a day of prayer and fasting against a war on Iraq. His peace envoy met Bush in Washington to urge him to pull back from war.
Turkey's parliament, in an embarrassing blow to the U.S. plans at the weekend, rejected a government proposal to let some 60,000 U.S. troops deploy in the country to set up a northern front against Iraq.
The country's powerful military said Wednesday it backed the government motion.
The government has signaled it could put forward a new motion on U.S. troops, and its hand would be strengthened if the U.N. Security Council backed the U.S. draft resolution.