U.S. President George W. Bush asked the Congress to grant him authority to use military force against Iraq, warning that Washington and its allies would act if the United Nations fails to resolve the standoff over disarmament.
"That'll be part of the resolution, the authorization to use force," Bush said Thursday. Bush, meeting in the Oval Office with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, and White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, said congressional leaders would get the draft language shortly.
He downplayed Iraq's offer made last Monday to accept UN weapons inspections without conditions, saying that Saddam Hussein was "not going to fool anybody".
In comments that seemed directed at the United Nations, Bush added: "If the United Nations Security Council won't deal with the problem, the United States and some of our friends will."
Saying Congress would vote on its resolution by the November 5 mid-term elections, Bush called, according to AFP, US action "an important signal to the world to see that this country is united in our resolve to deal with threats that we face."
Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein told the United Nations in a speech read Thursday by his foreign minister that Iraq is free of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
"Our country is ready to receive any scientific experts, accompanied by politicians you choose to represent any one of your countries, to tell us which places and scientific installations they would wish to see, particularly those about which the American officials have been fabricating false stories, alleging that they contain prohibited materials or activities," Foreign Minister Naji Sabri told the world body, quoting the Iraqi leader.
"I hereby declare before you that Iraq is clear of all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons," Sabri said, further quoting Saddam.
The speech heavily criticized the United States and Bush for trying to connect Iraq in some way to the tragedy of Sept. 11. It charged that "the American propaganda machine, along with official statements of lies, distortion and falsehood" was being used for "inciting the American public against Iraq, and pushing them to accept the U.S. administration's schemes of aggression as a fait accompli."
Iraq called on the United Nations to help protect its sovereignty in the face of possible U.S. military action.
And it charged that the United States was working in concert with Israel and was trying to control the Middle East oil supply. "The U.S. administration wants to destroy Iraq in order to control the Middle East oil and consequently control the politics as well as the oil and economic policies of the whole world," the foreign minister said.
He also charged that the United States was fomenting problems with Iraq to prevent the Security Council from lifting economic sanctions and to keep the Middle East from becoming a nuclear-free zone as called for in council resolutions.
The United States, he said, does not want to embarrass Israel or deprive it of the nuclear, chemical and biological weapons it possesses.
The speech to the U.N. General Assembly was greeted with loud applause by diplomats from around the world.
But in Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the speech "presented nothing new and was more of the same." "The speech is an attempt to lure the world down the same dead-end road that the world has traveled before and, in that, it represents a disappointing failure by Iraq," Fleischer added. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
