In what appears to be the first concrete indication that the US is planning military attack against Iraq despite objections from its allies, CIA officers surveyed last month three key airfields in northern Iraq.
The airfields, situated in northern Iraq near the cities of Arbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah in Kurdistan – the only part of Iraq not controlled by the regime in Baghdad – could be used to receive arms and troops in the event of a conflict between the US and Iraq, an Iraqi source has told UK’s The Independent.
The US is pursuing its military strategy and, at the same time, trying to persuade Iraq to accept UN weapons inspectors back into the country, which could theoretically avert the need for a military campaign, the British newspaper said.
Iraq’s President Saddam has shown in the last few weeks that he takes American threats to attack him very seriously by telling householders in Baghdad to stockpile food. Militia and paramilitary groups as well as the army have been put on high alert.
The largest of the airfields examined by the CIA is near Arbil, the largest Kurdish city, about 35 km from the Iraqi front line. "It has good modern runway about 2.5 km long, built for the Iraqi air-force in the 1980s," said a member of the Iraqi opposition, who did not want his name published.
The other airfields are at Bamarnii outside Dohuk in western Kurdistan, which was used by Gulf War allies in Operation Provide Comfort, launched to help the Kurds after they had been routed by President Saddam's army in 1991. A third airfield is in Sulaimaniyah province in eastern Kurdistan, not far from the Iranian border.
Late last year a high-level delegation from the US State Department visited Kurdistan. They were told by the two most important Kurdish leaders – Massoud Barzani, who heads the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and Jalal al-Talabani, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan – that the Kurds would not act against Saddam Hussein unless they were certain that the US was determined to overthrow him and had a plan to do so.
British Opposition
Meanwhile, the British Secretary of State for International Development Clare Short increased tensions within the government Sunday when she became the first cabinet minister to declare her opposition to "a blind military attack on Iraq."
She said that such a move would be very unwise and hinted that she might even quit the cabinet if she thought the attack was unwarranted. "We all have bottom lines," she warned.
According to The Guardian, Short joined the German government, and other European voices, in arguing that any military intervention against Iraq must be endorsed by the UN security council in advance, a position the British Foreign Office has not so far adopted.
Her remarks came as David Blunkett, the British home secretary, effectively confirmed that he had warned a cabinet meeting on Iraq a fortnight ago that there may be a serious increase in racial tension if Britain joined the attack on Saddam Hussein.
Encouraged by the growing worldwide opposition to the possible U.S. attack, Iraqi envoys are working in the Arab world to draw support against US Vice President Dick Cheney’s regional tour to win backing for an attack.
Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz opened a diplomatic offensive Sunday to rally North African states at the same time as Iraq's number two Ezzat Ibrahim held talks in the Arab Gulf states after trips to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.
For his part, the Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan issued a warning Sunday to neighboring states that any attack on Iraq would be followed by similar operations against them.
"We think all Arab countries without exception are now convinced that an aggression against Iraq, despite the pretexts invoked by the American administration to conduct it, will be a prelude to an aggression against other Arab countries," he told reporters.
(Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
