Washington will go outside the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to boost Turkey's defence ahead of a possible US-led war with Iraq, US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell told the US Congress yesterday, writes Conor O'Clery, North America Editor, in New York
This follows the failure of NATO ambassadors in Brussels to end a bitter rift in the alliance, with France, Germany and Belgium refusing a US request to begin military preparations for war by helping key NATO member Turkey increase border security.
The NATO crisis has exposed a deep transatlantic rift and thrown into disarray America's diplomatic offensive to persuade the UN Security Council to back a second resolution authorising war against Iraq.
The White House is pressing ahead with efforts to get Security Council backing for military action to disarm Iraq, though the opposition from veto-bearing members, France, Russia and China, has stiffened noticibly this week.
Mr Powell yesterday told a Congressional committee "we're not breaking up" NATO, in response to concerns expressed by Democratic Senator Ernest Hollings that the US was putting its international alliances in jeopardy over Iraq.
"Who's breaking up the alliance? Not the United States," Mr Powell said, noting that it was the responsibility of the UN to enforce Resolution 1441 requiring Iraq to disarm. "The alliance is breaking itself up because it will not meet its responsibilities." Much had been made of disagreement in NATO he said, but 16 out of 19 members backed the US request for military aid to Turkey.
Mr Powell echoed US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld's statement on Monday that the defence of Turkey could be undertaken by a "coalition of the willing" outside the NATO framework.
President Bush said he didn't understand the action of France, Germany and Belgium. "I understand why people don't like to commit the military to action," he said on Monday evening. "I can understand that. I'm the person in this country that hugs the mothers and the widows if their son or husband dies. I know people would like to avoid armed conflict, and so would I."
Mr Bush pressed his case yesterday in calls to a number of world leaders including British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair, Philippine President Ms Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and President Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, which has a Security Council seat and supports the US.
His spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, said there was still a reasonable expectation of a new resolution being adopted. "At the end of the day, the President would like to believe the United Nations will be relevant," he told reporters.
Chief UN weapons inspector Dr Hans Blix yesterday urged Iraq to "work very fast, very prompt" to forward new documents to "produce results" before he reports to the UN on Friday. In Baghdad during the weekend, Iraqis officials promised to look for documents proving the destruction of alleged stocks of banned weapons of mass destruction.
Public support for war against Iraq has grown in the US following the presentation of the case against Saddam Hussein by Mr Powell at the UN last week. A Gallup Poll showed 63 per cent in favour of an invasion, up from 58 per cent, and 52 per cent before President Bush's State of the Union address two weeks ago.
Most UN newspapers sided with the administration in the NATO dispute, though the New York Times criticised the "destructive 'with us or against us' approach, which is being foolishly applied to some of our most important allies." The New York Post published a front page photograph of a cemetery at Normandy with white crosses and Stars of David over the graves of more than 10,000 American soldiers to shame France for opposing the US on Iraq.
The Washington Post accused France and Germany of responding to Iraq's "flagrant violation" of UN resolutions by mounting an offensive against the US rather than Saddam Hussein which "could poison international relations for years to come".