With nine days to go before UN inspectors make their crucial first report to the UN Security Council, the US and Iraq stepped up a war of words yesterday over looming confrontation in the Gulf region. Michael Jansen, in Baghdad and Conor O'Clery, in New York, report
The US will make a case at the end of January that Iraq is not co-operating with United Nations weapons inspectors, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said, while the White House termed the finding of chemical weapon casings in Iraq on Thursday "troubling and serious".
Mr Powell also warned that Washington would take action against Iraq without a second UN security council resolution "if we are of the firm opinion that Iraq still has weapons of mass destruction or wants to produce new ones." In Baghdad Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein claimed in an address to the nation that Iraq's enemies would face "suicide" at the gates of his capital if an attack were launched.
In a speech to mark the 12th anniversary of the US-led "Desert Storm" campaign against Iraq, he asked Iraqis to take up the "sword, the pen and the banner" to engage their antagonists with arms, propaganda and political activism and resist any new onslaught.
Crowds demonstrated in the streets of Baghdad as Mr Hussein, quoting the Koran, called on his people to remain steadfast as their "enemy has mustered a great force against you." A huge anti-war demonstration is expected in Washington today, with tens of thousands of people coming in on overnight buses from as far away as Albany in upstate New York to take part in a march to a Washington naval yard.
American war preparations continued apace with seven San Diego-based warships setting sail for the Gulf yesterday. Last week, Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld ordered 35,000 troops to the Persian Gulf in a build up that will total over 200,000 personnel by next month. UN arms inspectors are required to make their first formal report to the Security Council on January 27th since resuming inspections in Iraq in December under Resolution 1441.
"We believe a persuasive case will be there at the end of the month that Iraq is not co-operating," Mr Powell told Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily in an interview published today.
"If you are looking for proof of weapons of mass destruction, I can show you pictures. In the coming days we will make information available that confirm our impression and our stance." He said that on January 27th, each of the 15 members of the Security Council should be able to answer a simple question about whether Iraq was co-operating. Noting that many nations believed a new resolution was necessary to justify a war he said the US took these concerns seriously, "but we have always made clear that the US will act without a second resolution, if we are of the firm opinion that Iraq still has weapons of mass destruction or wants to produce new ones.
"For this position of the United States, there is sufficient basis in international law which is supported by the breach of UN resolutions." The Security Council would discuss how the inspectors should proceed after January 27th. "It could be that the Council asks both of them to present another report two weeks later," he said.
French President Jacques Chirac, whose country holds veto power on the Security Council, said yesterday that another Security Council resolution might be required for military action.
Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN's nuclear agency, will confront Iraqi officials in talks tomorrow and Monday in Baghdad with alleged omissions from Iraq's 12,000-page weapons declaration.
The dozen empty chemical warheads found on Thursday were "not on the declared list of weapons that Iraq issued just one month ago," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said yesterday.
"The fact that Iraq is in possession of undeclared chemical warheads, which the United Nations says are in excellent condition, is troubling and serious," he said.