The US said it had massed enough troops in the Gulf to attack Iraq, even as Turkey appeared to come round yesterday to letting its territory be used to launch part of the expected assault.
Washington pressed on with its drive towards war by working on a UN Security Council resolution that it hoped would secure support from an international community not convinced of the need to use force against Baghdad.
While many nations say UN inspectors must get more time to establish if Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, Washington, backed by its main ally Britain, says Iraq has already lost this argument and President Saddam Hussein must now be removed.
"If military force becomes necessary to disarm Iraq, this nation, joined by others, will act decisively in a just cause, and we will prevail," Bush said. "For the oppressed people of Iraq ... the day of freedom is drawing near."
Defense officials say the US and Britain have gathered more than 150,000 military personnel in the region along with dozens of warships and hundreds of aircraft.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told US Public Television that the build-up was now sufficient for an attack.
"We are at a point where, if the president makes that decision [to attack], the Department of Defense is prepared and has the capabilities and the strategy to do that."
But US plans to launch a northern front in any invasion of Iraq have been complicated by the reluctance of Turkey, Iraq's northern neighbor, to let its territory be used as a launchpad.
Analysts say a second invasion force into Iraq's north could shorten any war and lower the number of American casualties.
But Turkey was driving a hard bargain with its key NATO ally in the face of popular opposition to a war, concern about the future of Kurdish rule in northern Iraq and worries about the economic fallout of a war.
Washington signalled willingness on Thursday to improve a promised aid package -- which US officials say totals US$6 billion in grants and up to US$20 billion in loan guarantees.
The US also faces political resistance to a war from international partners including NATO ally France; Russia, a partner in its war against terror; and China, like the other two a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on Thursday emphasized his support for continued inspections by saying UN arms inspectors in Iraq were coming under pressure to produce critical reports that would back the case for war.
Even the leaders of countries such as Britain, Italy and Spain, which back the American threat of war, need the comfort of international support in the shape of another UN resolution to help them overcome domestic opposition to war.
With time running out for US and British troops to fight before the Iraqi desert becomes debilitatingly hot, Washington and London say they will present a new resolution to the Security Council next week, perhaps on Monday.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the wording would make clear that Iraq had not fulfilled November's Security Council Resolution 1441 ordering it to cooperate with UN inspectors to prove it had no weapons of mass destruction.
But the draft may not include a specific call for force, for which a majority on the 15-member council may be hard to achieve. In last week's debate on the latest report from weapons inspectors, only Spain and Bulgaria supported the hardline American-British stance.
"It will be a resolution that summarizes the situation ... as it exists. Shows that Iraq is not in compliance. I think the resolution will point out that lack of cooperation," Powell told BBC Television's Newsnight program.
"This next resolution need not say `military action' to provide the authority for the use of force."
Diplomats say the draft may simply say Iraq -- which denies maintaining banned weapons programs -- is in "further material breach" of UN disarmament resolutions, which Washington and London argue is sufficient justification for war.
Russia's Ivanov did not rule out vetoing a new UN resolution which endorsed the use of force against Iraq, but said Moscow had no objections to examining a new resolution if it was aimed at helping the inspection process.
Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix on Monday plans to deliver a list of some 30 unresolved questions about Iraqi disarmament to his advisory board, which some nations want to turn into an ultimatum for Iraq.
The list is in preparation for a report to the 15-member UN Security Council that Blix will submit in writing on Feb. 28 or on March 3 followed by an oral presentation tentatively scheduled for March 7, diplomats said.
The US and Britain are not expected to push he new resolution to a vote before hearing the report from Blix, which is interpreted as a sign that despite Rumsfeld's warning, no military action is planned for early March.
The compilation of the questions has been organized by Blix's UN Monitoring, Inspection and Verification Commission (UNMOVIC) over several years and amounts to some 300 pages.
A condensed version is expected to be presented in "clusters" to UNMOVIC's advisory group, composed of technical experts and government officials from 16 countries, who meet at the UN on Monday and Tuesday.
Some Security Council members, such as Germany, have suggested the list be used as an ultimatum to Iraq in an effort to bridge differences between US plans to go to war and those who want inspections to continue for an unspecified time.
Meanwhile in Malaysia, developing countries as far apart as Afghanistan and Zimbabwe threw their weight against war in Iraq. But they refused Baghdad's request that they bar US troops from using their territory as a launchpad for an attack.
The issue of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and North Korea dominated preparatory talks before next week's summit of the 114-member Non-Aligned Movement in Kuala Lumpur.
The 114 nations said in a draft resolution that the use of force against Iraq would run contrary to the global consensus that "categorically rejects the current threat of war".
"We express our support and solidarity with Iraq vis-a-vis the possible aggression against it and (are) committed to exert all possible means to achieve a peaceful solution," it said.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS