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US Says Anti-Iraq Force Ready as Turkey Comes Round

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By Patricia Wilson and Ralph Boulton

Reuters
February 21, 2003

The United States said it had massed enough troops in the Gulf to attack Iraq, even as Turkey appeared to come round Friday to letting its territory be used to launch part of the expected assault.


Washington pressed on with its drive toward war by working on a U.N. Security Council resolution that it hoped would secure support from an international community not convinced of the need to use force against Baghdad.

While many nations say U.N. inspectors must get more time to establish if Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, Washington, backed by its main ally Britain, says Iraq has already lost this argument and President Saddam Hussein must now be removed.

"If military force becomes necessary to disarm Iraq, this nation, joined by others, will act decisively in a just cause, and we will prevail," President Bush said. "For the oppressed people of Iraq ... the day of freedom is drawing near."

Defense officials say the United States and Britain have amassed more than 150,000 military personnel in the region along with dozens of warships and hundreds of aircraft. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Public Television's "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," "We are at a point where, if the president makes that decision (to attack), the Department of Defense is prepared and has the capabilities and the strategy to do that."

But U.S. plans to launch a northern front in any invasion of Iraq have been complicated by the reluctance of Turkey, Iraq's northern neighbor, to let its territory be used as a launchpad.

NORTHERN FRONT

Turkey has driven a hard bargain with its NATO ally in the face of popular opposition to a war, concern about Kurdish rule in northern Iraq and worries about the economic disruption. Washington signaled willingness Thursday to improve a promised aid package -- which U.S. officials say totals $6 billion in grants and up to $20 billion in loan guarantees.

Friday Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul told a meeting in Istanbul: "They understand our worries, we understand theirs. A result will be reached in the coming days."

The United States also faces political resistance to a war from international partners including NATO ally France; Russia, a partner in its war against terror; and China, like the other two a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council.

France has threatened to use its veto and Russia has not ruled out doing the same. Both countries have also said they see no need at the moment for a new resolution authorizing war. French President Jacques Chirac noted that a report by the weapons inspectors last Friday had called on Iraq to do much more to cooperate but had also indicated that progress was being made.

"Things being as they are today, everything argues for the fact that the goal can be achieved by peaceful means, that is to say through inspections, and not by military means," he told a news conference.

Meanwhile the leaders of countries such as Britain, Italy and Spain, which back the American threat of war, need the comfort of international support in the shape of another U.N. resolution to help them overcome domestic opposition.

With time running out for U.S. and British troops to fight before the Iraqi desert becomes debilitatingly hot, Washington and London say they will present a new resolution to the Security Council next week. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the wording would make clear that Iraq had not fulfilled November's Security Council Resolution 1441 ordering it to cooperate with U.N. inspectors to prove it had no weapons of mass destruction.

TERMS OF RESOLUTION

But the draft may not include a specific call for force, for which there may be no majority on the 15-member council. In last week's debate on the latest report from weapons inspectors, only Spain and Bulgaria supported the tough American-British line.

"This next resolution need not say 'military action' to provide the authority for the use of force," Powell told Britain's BBC Television late Thursday. Diplomats say the draft may simply say Iraq -- which denies maintaining banned weapons programs -- is in "further material breach" of U.N. disarmament resolutions, which Washington and London argue is sufficient justification for war.

In an attempt to allay widespread suspicions in the Gulf, Powell told the Dubai-based Al Arabiya television that the United States had no imperialist designs on the oil-rich region: "If it is necessary to have a conflict, it is all for the purpose of making Iraq a good neighbor that is not developing weapons, that is not threatening its neighbors ... So we are going into Iraq not to destroy the place, but to make it better."

Supporters of a possible war were meeting Friday to discuss ways to gain support for their position.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has argued that it is inhumane to Iraqis to leave Saddam in power, was meeting his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi in Rome while Spanish premier Jose Maria Aznar was flying to Bush's ranch in Texas.

In Kuala Lumpur, the 114 members of the Non-Aligned Movement said in a draft resolution that the use of force against Iraq would run contrary to the global consensus that "categorically rejects the current threat of war."

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven main economic powers were set to discuss the economic consequences of a war in Iraq at a weekend meeting in Rome, beginning Friday. A source at the meeting said if a war ended quickly, there might not be any damage to global growth. "If instead it should last longer, two or three months, then we'll start to pay," the source said.


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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.