Bush to Seek Congress Leaders' Backing on Iraq

18/09/2002| IslamWeb

President Bush, taken aback by Iraq's offer to let U.N. arms inspectors return, will try to regain the initiative on Wednesday by seeking Congressional support for tough action against Baghdad. The Iraqi offer, made on Monday under mounting international pressure, was greeted with scorn by Bush, skepticism by his British allies and relief by Arab states hoping that it had averted the risk of a U.S. attack.

U.N. weapons inspectors held a first meeting with Iraqi officials on plans for their return after a nearly four-year gap, and agreed to discuss practical details at end-month.

Washington wants the Security Council to give the inspectors stronger powers, backed by the threat of force, than they had in the 1990s when they complained that the Iraqis hindered and deceived them in their search for weapons of mass destruction. Iraq accused them of spying for the United States.

On Tuesday the Security Council was split between governments which want to avert a U.S. attack on Iraq and those which see the priority as disarming Iraq at any cost.

Bush has invited Congressional leaders to a breakfast meeting at which they will discuss the shape of a resolution designed to keep up pressure on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Momentum appears to be building in Congress for Bush's objective of ousting Saddam from power.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, said in a television interview on Tuesday "...I would say there would be strong support for the administration's actions..."

He also dismissed the Iraqi offer to resume U.N. inspections, saying "This is nothing more than an effort to divert the attention and the resolve and the commitment of the United Nations..."

Shortly afterwards, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will brief the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee on U.S. plans toward Iraq, though few military details are likely to emerge because the meeting is open.

Words of welcome for the Iraqi decision came on Wednesday from Pope John Paul, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and from Iraq's neighbors Iran and Syria, all expressing the hope that Baghdad's action had removed the risk of conflict.

A front-page editorial in the official Syrian daily Tishreen said the Iraqi move "...has cut off the road ahead of those hotheads in the United States who are planning to drown the region in blood and destruction."

DOUBLE STANDARDS

Many Arabs complain of what they see as U.S. hypocrisy on enforcing Iraqi compliance with U.N. resolutions, while failing to implement Security Council decisions on Israel's military occupation of Arab land.

Tishreen said Washington should do away with double standards for Israel and the rest of the world, warning that Bush's declared war on terror was turning into a "war on the victims" of terror.

Ignoring such concerns, Bush insisted on Tuesday that the Security Council must still compel Iraq to accept unhampered inspections or face the use of U.N.-backed force.

"The Security Council must act, must act in a way to hold this regime to account, must not be fooled, must be relevant to keep the peace," he said.

Russia, one of the five Council members with veto power, disagreed, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov telling a news conference "We don't need any special resolution. All the necessary resolutions are to hand."

Canada backed the U.S. position, but Egypt and France tended toward the Russian position, while the European Union and the United Nations adopted stances midway between the two.

The U.S. position won support on Wednesday from Richard Butler, a former chief U.N. arms inspector, who dismissed Iraq's offer to resume inspections as "very snakey,," saying it failed to guarantee unfettered access.

"What we really needed to hear is that you can inspect without conditions, that you can go anywhere, any time. It (the Iraqi offer) did not say that, that is a black hole. That is a significant omission," Butler told CNN. "It is a very snakey letter."

Without unfettered access to Iraqi facilities, the inspectors would not have "a snowball's chance in hell" of establishing whether Iraq had nuclear, chemical or germ weapons, he said.

Baghdad was barred from possession of such weapons by U.N. resolutions passed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, but the United States says it has been trying to rebuild its weapons programs and is a threat to regional and world security.

"Iraq's basic position is to say it has no weapons of mass destruction...that is a black lie," Butler said. "The Russians know it, the French know it...they're the ones who are saying this letter is okay, let's go with it."

On the world oil market, highly sensitive to wars and the rumor of wars, prices rose on Wednesday after analysts said a U.S.-led strike on Iraq was still possible.

Prices fell as much as five percent on Tuesday, but recovered after the White House poured scorn on the Iraqi offer. Benchmark Brent crude rose 23 cents to 28.20 dollars a barrel on Wednesday, a rise helped by a big drop in U.S. inventories.

The price of gold also rose, as often at times of international tension, and was fixed in the London morning session at 317.60 dollars, up from 315.90 dollars on Tuesday. Dealers said U.S.-Iraq tension, the softer dollar and weaker European share prices contributed to the rise.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Iraqi man reads morning newspapers in front of a mural of President Saddam Hussein, in central Baghdad September 18, 2002. U.S. President George W. Bush said the U.N. Security Council "must not be fooled" by an Iraqi offer to allow the return of U.N. weapons inspectors, as the Pentagon moved ahead with contigency planning for possible war. REUETRS/Akram