The Hindu : Powell sets cut-off date for Iraq

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 11, 2003

International

International

Powell sets cut-off date for Iraq

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON FEB. 10. In one more indication that the Bush administration is stepping up pressure on Iraq and the international community and adamant on going about with its own agenda at the United Nations, the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has virtually set the cut off date as Friday, February 14.

If the weapons inspectors, Hans Blix and Mohammad ElBaradei, reported on Friday that Iraq was still not cooperating, then "the Security Council will have to sit in session immediately and determine what should happen next", Gen. Powell said on Sunday. In his view, the Council would have to start "considering" a resolution that Iraq was in "material breach" and there were "serious consequences" to follow. "Material breach" followed by "serious consequences" mean the use of military force.

Senior Bush administration officials have not taken kindly to a secret resolution reportedly being prepared by France and Germany that dramatically alters the situation on the ground in Iraq with the introduction of thousands of United Nations Blue Helmets, increased reconnaissance flights and tripling the weapons inspectors. Officially, France and Germany have denied that they are getting ready to present this as a formal resolution in New York this week. Washington is said to be more than just miffed that even while travelling in Europe, the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has not been briefed on the French-German proposal.

For his part, the President, George W. Bush, stepped up his rhetoric saying that for about a decade Saddam Hussein has been fooling the world and now faced the "moment of truth". Mr. Bush was in West Virginia for a Republican Congressional retreat.

The Iraqi leader "wants to think that hide and seek is a game that we should play. And it's over", he said adding, "It is clear that not only is Saddam Hussein is deceiving, it is clear he's not disarming. And you'll see us over the next short period of time working with friends and allies and the United Nations to bring that body along".

Senior officials have been saying that Mr. Bush is clear about not wanting to have the Iraq crisis dragged into uncertainty — weeks, not months is the common refrain. Barely a few days to go before Dr. Blix and Dr. ElBaradei appear before the Security Council, the Bush administration has been rejecting some of the forward moves of the regime in Baghdad as a game all too well known.

The official and diplomatic community is convinced that Dr. Blix will have to tell the world body that there is change in the attitude of Baghdad on the substantive aspect of disarmament.

On January 27, Dr. Blix said Iraq does well on process, not on substance. With a majority of Americans in almost any opinion poll of the view that war with Iraq is imminent, there is also the perception that the U.S. should be in this conflict with the United Nations, a view shared on Capitol Hill. "...It seems to me we ought to be welcoming efforts to forestall war, even if we disagree with those efforts after we read them. We should not treat the U.N.Security Council as some kind of a stumbling block," Carl Levin, top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said.

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