By Timothy L. OBrien
New York TimesJanuary 29, 2003
As the Security Council met to consider its position on possible war with Iraq and ongoing weapons inspections there, Baghdad's ambassador to the United Nations offered a harsh assessment of President Bush's State of the Union address, likening it to British colonial aspirations of a century ago and dismissing the idea that the White House can present credible evidence next week that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction.
"Last night we heard business as usual from President Bush," said the ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri. "You can accuse us as much as you'd like but you cannot provide a shred of evidence."
Noting that the British were eventually driven out of Iraq, and criticizing the Bush administration as "blinded by oil fever" Mr. Aldouri struck a defiant and hawkish tone in remarks to reporters before he joined the Security Council meeting. "I would like to remind the Bush administration that the Iraqi people struggled through the first half of the last century to gain their independence from colonialism and strived through the second half of the century to preserve their independence," he said. "Our independence is too dear to us — we will spare nothing to defend it. The American invasion did not succeed in Vietnam and it will never succeed in Iraq."
President Bush said in his annual address on Tuesday night that the United States was prepared to act unilaterally against Iraq if necessary and that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell will appear before a special session of the Security Council on Feb. 5 to provide "information and intelligence about Iraq's illegal weapons programs, its attempts to hide those weapons from inspectors, and its links to terrorist groups."
The White House said today that it will use Mr. Powell's appearance to initiate a second phase of Resolution 1441, the Security Council decree issued last November mandating a weapons inspection program in Iraq. The White House said this new phase will center on a war debate and that the Bush Administration will not support issuing a second resolution against Iraq.
The British ambassador to the United Nations, Jeremy Greenstock, spoke with reporters about halfway through today's Security Council meeting, saying that "the debate will go on" over Iraq. But he said that the terms and tenor of that debate have been recast as a result of a highly critical report issued Monday by Hans Blix, the chief chemical and biological weapons inspector for the United Nations. Mr. Blix castigated Baghdad, saying that the Iraqis have failed to adequately comply with weapons inspectors and detailing evidence of potentially dangerous weapons capabilities. "The question is, does Iraq realize the game is up or doesn't it?" Mr. Greenstock said, noting that the Security Council debates today had a renewed emphasis on whether Iraq is attempting to keep weapons inspectors at bay.
Striking his own hawkish tone, President Bush said in a speech in Michigan today that weapons inspections alone may not be enough to contain Saddam Hussein, saying that Iraq could support and use terrorist groups to attack America. "In my judgment you don't contain Saddam Hussein," President Bush said. "You don't hope that therapy will somehow change his evil mind." "Because of Al Qaeda connections, because of his history, he's a danger to the American people, and we've got to deal with him before it is too late," the president added. "What's changed for America, besides the fact he's still dangerous, there's now a shadowy terror network which he could use as a forward army, attacking his worst enemy and never leaving a fingerprint behind."
In his State of the Union address, President Bush said Baghdad had not accounted for as much as 25,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulin toxin, 500 tons of sarin, mustard gas and VX nerve agent and about 30,000 munitions capable of being armed with chemical weapons.
Sergey Lavrov, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, said he looked forward to Mr. Powell's appearance before the Security Council next week. "I certainly welcome the statement that information would be provided," Mr. Lavrov said. "We have been stressing all along that if countries have persuasive proof that Iraq continues its W.M.D. program, that this proof should be presented either to the council or to the inspectors." Mr. Lavrov also took issue with reports that Russia is ready to change its current position and end support of weapons inspections in favor of war with Iraq, asserting that comments by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia suggesting just that had been misinterpreted. "We believe that inspections must continue, and that if Iraq stops cooperating with inspectors and starts blocking the inspectors then certainly the Security Council would have to look into it," he said.
Meanwhile, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, reiterated his request that weapons inspectors be given more time to complete their assessment of Baghdad's nuclear capabilities. In comments to reporters before the meeting, he also pressed for much greater Iraqi compliance with the inspections, noting that "the international community is getting impatient" with Iraqi intransigence. "We need, and Iraq should understand, that we need to make quick progress on all fronts," Mr. ElBaradei said. "Iraq needs to show more proactive support in the next few weeks, because we all know time is running out."
John Negroponte, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, offered a similar assessment of the timetable Iraq faces. "We feel a time for decision making is fast approaching," he said. "The window is closing in on us."
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