The Hindu : U.S. steps up pressure on Iraq

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 25, 2003

International

International

U.S. steps up pressure on Iraq

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington FEB. 24. As the leadership in Iraq is said to be mulling over the latest "order'' from the top weapons inspector, Hans Blix, the Bush administration is increasingly making the point that the last weeks of the Iraqi showdown is around the corner.

First, all eyes are on the written report that Dr. Blix has to submit to the United Nations Security Council on March 1; and this will be followed six days later by a more crucial assessment on whether or not Baghdad has complied with the order to dismantle and destroy its Al Samoud-2 missiles, warheads, components and everything else that went along with this system. By March 1, Iraq has to start destroying the missiles as per the letter of Dr. Blix.

"Once he (Dr. Blix) has made that report (of March 7), everybody will have one last opportunity to make a judgement. And shortly after that, judgement will have to be made as to what the Security Council should do'', the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has said while travelling in Asia.

In the next two days or so, the U.S. and Britain are getting ready to present a "new'' resolution to the Security Council, which is expected to be straightforward in its language, but minus threatening phrases like "dangerous consequences''.

The resolution is not expected to have a specific deadline for Iraq but will remind the Saddam Hussein regime that it is in "further'' material breach of its commitments and obligations of U.N. resolutions. The heat is already on the regime in Iraq to start complying with Dr. Blix's instructions and start the destruction of the Al Samoud missiles.

The U.N. weapons inspections team, according to one assessment, is in "no mood'' to start a lengthy debate with Baghdad with a view to arriving at a compromise of sorts. Simply put, the message from New York to Baghdad is that the missiles would have to go. "They have to destroy the weapons... If they refuse to destroy them, the Council will have to take a decision on that'', was the response of the U.N. Secretary General, Kofi Annan.

France, which went out of its way to call for continued weapons inspections, has said in no uncertain terms that Iraq will not be given a pass on these missiles.

"It is necessary for Iraq to act and meet its obligations, in this case the destruction of these prohibited missiles'', the French Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, has said.

The Bush administration, which has all along been saying that time is running out for the regime in Iraq, is trying to stress that what is now before the Security Council could be the final days before a military showdown.

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