Sat, Feb 22, 2003 page1

• Forces are ready, Rumsfeld says

  PREPARATIONS With 150,000 troops and hundreds of tanks and jets stationed in the Gulf region, the US and its allies are ready to make war, with or without the UN

  • REUTERS
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  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.

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