|
Bush meets blair portugal spaine { March 16 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-iraq-usa.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-iraq-usa.html
March 16, 2003
President Bush Leaves for Emergency Iraq Summit
By REUTERS
Filed at 7:36 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush left the United States on Sunday for an emergency summit with his staunchest allies that could start the final countdown to war with Iraq.
The White House billed the summit -- on Portugal's wind-swept Azores islands -- as a last-ditch effort by Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar to revive a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding that Iraq disarm or face attack.
In preparation, Bush telephoned Blair and told Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi he was ``going the extra mile on the diplomatic front,'' a White House spokeswoman said.
Bush played down the chances of averting war, even as Iraq said it wanted U.N. chief weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei to visit Baghdad as soon as possible to discuss pending disarmament issues.
Barring a last-minute compromise in the Security Council, the White House would quickly shift to a war footing.
Saddam put Iraq on that footing on Saturday night, with a decree dividing the country into four military districts under his command and ordering them to ``destroy any foreign aggression.''
Soon after the summit, Bush could address the nation, issuing what amounts to a final ultimatum to Saddam and giving aid workers time to leave Iraq before military action starts.
Final preparations for war were already under way.
More U.S. warships were en route to the Gulf region, where 250,000 U.S. and British troops are poised to strike at Saddam over his alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Iraq denies it has such weapons.
POST-SADDAM IRAQ
Washington is also planning a post-Saddam Iraq.
Aides said Bush has approved creation of an ``Iraqi Interim Authority,'' including members of each of the country's major ethnic, tribal and religious groups, to eventually help draft a new Iraqi constitution setting up an autonomous government.
``There is little reason to hope that Saddam Hussein will disarm,'' Bush said on Saturday in his weekly radio address. ``If force is required to disarm him, the American people can know that our armed forces have been given every tool and every resource to achieve victory.''
Bush, Blair and Aznar are the sponsors of a U.N. resolution that would set the stage for war on Iraq. The measure is the subject of a bitter Security Council fight and appears doomed to fail after French and Russian veto threats.
The summit, at a U.S. air base at Lajes on the island of Terceira, should be considered an effort to find Security Council unity in hopes of forcing Saddam to give up power without war, not a war council, U.S. officials said.
``Crucial days lie ahead for the free nations of the world,'' Bush said. ``Governments are now showing whether their stated commitments to liberty and security are words alone -- or convictions they're prepared to act upon.''
The United States has said it might abandon efforts to get a U.N. vote, contending that November's U.N. Resolution 1441 is mandate enough to invade Iraq.
But Blair, facing his greatest political crisis, is anxious for U.N. support to soothe the majority of Britons, who oppose any military action without U.N. approval, polls show.
The goal of Sunday's summit, one U.S. official said, was to impress upon Saddam that there is ``the nucleus of a coalition that is going to bring diplomacy to a close either way and to make him understand how serious this is.''
Copyright 2003 Reuters Ltd. | Privacy Policy
|
|
