Global Policy Forum

By Paul Richter

Despite passionate resistance from abroad, the Bush administration signaled Sunday that it intends to press ahead with its effort to quickly disarm Iraq and wants to wind down deliberations at the United Nations in the next few weeks.

Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security advisor, said action against Iraq must be taken without delay, even though Friday's deliberations at the U.N. Security Council suggested that an increasing number of council members want to grant more time to the U.N. inspectors seeking any weapons of mass destruction that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein might possess.

"It is time for this to end," Rice said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Continuing to talk about more time and more time is simply going to relieve pressures on the Iraqis to do what they must do." Hussein has "weeks, not months," she said on "Fox News Sunday," reaffirming that the United States is ready to go to war without U.N. support but with a sizable "coalition of the willing."

A senior administration official said the Americans were weighing several approaches that might enable the United States to line up more support in the United Nations in the next week or two.

One possibility, he said, would be for the United Nations to set out a number of specific final tests for the Iraqis to determine whether they will in fact acquiesce in disarmament. The United States might support such an approach if the tests were true measures of Iraq's willingness to disarm, rather than simply of its agreement to submit to procedures it could later evade, said the official, who asked to remain unidentified.

This proposal was raised by German diplomats in a closed meeting of the United States and rotating Security Council members Friday and won some support from a small number of other countries, the official said. Yet it remained unclear whether a plan could be worked out that would win support from the council, he said.

Washington has insisted that Iraq agree unconditionally to such measures as surveillance overflights, destruction of certain missiles and unfettered access to scientists who might have knowledge of proscribed weapons programs.

Bush, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and other senior officials have been discussing the situation since the Friday meeting at the Security Council, and they hope, with their British allies, to come up with wording for a proposed new resolution within the next few days. The resolution would probably mirror, for the most part, the language of Resolution 1441, which was passed in November and declares that Iraq has breached repeated U.N. resolutions on disarmament and faces "serious consequences" unless it complies with U.N. demands.

Uphill Battle for U.S.

The Friday council session left the widespread impression that the United States had been caught off guard and that Powell had been placed on the defensive. It suggested that the United States would have an uphill fight trying to round up the minimum nine votes it would need under U.N. rules to carry the 15-member Security Council.

But the U.S. official insisted that the outcome of Friday's meeting was "fine" and that it had not thrown U.S. plans into disarray. He said that the United States had been aware of the views of those unhappy with the campaign against Iraq and that the only surprises came in the strong expressions of support from some backers of the U.S. side.

Powell said during the council session that the United States would soon offer additional evidence of links between Iraq and the Al Qaeda terrorist network. The administration official said Sunday that the United States has "an abundance of material" on those links and intends to make some of it public soon, although he said he did not know when that would be.

Although some of the most convincing details cannot be released because of intelligence risks, other corroborating material can be made public, he said. On Friday, France threw up an additional obstacle by proposing another ministerial meeting of the council on March 14. But Rice said Sunday that March 14 "is not a date to our ... point of view."

Asked if the United States felt it could assemble sufficient votes for a new resolution, she said, "We're prepared to work toward that end, and we will see where we come out." She made clear her belief that deliberations cannot continue much longer.

"We are in a diplomatic phase where we're discussing how best to bring this to a conclusion," she said. "We've not determined that there needs to be a deadline, but I think that we are determined that the Security Council cannot continue on this path for very much longer."

Rice also denied that the administration was rattled by weekend protests that drew millions worldwide, including demonstrations in London, Rome and New York. "Nothing could be further from the truth," she said.

Meanwhile, the chief U.N. nuclear inspector said Sunday that countries opposed to using force against Iraq might change their minds if Baghdad doesn't show more willingness to reveal evidence of weapons programs. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told Associated Press that the onus is on Iraq, not on the weapons inspectors, to prove that Baghdad has nothing to hide. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a supporter of the administration's plans, said on "Fox News Sunday" that the French, who are calling for stepped-up inspections in Iraq, are trying to relive their country's past glories with their drive to spearhead resistance to the United States. He said the French reminded him of a "fading actress from the '40s" who is "trying to dine out on her looks but doesn't have the face for it."

A former commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, retired U.S. Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark, voiced reservations about U.S. plans and said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the White House should consider allowing inspectors to continue searching for weapons of mass destruction and not follow an "artificial deadline." "It's unlikely the inspectors will ever find the so-called smoking gun on this. But if it makes our allies more able to go to their publics and justify their support of our operation, then I think that's important," said Clark, who has been mentioned as a possible Democratic presidential contender. Clark also predicted quick success for U.S. forces if war does begin, saying the American troops would "roll them up."

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.