President Bush on Thursday said he would decide in “weeks, not months” whether to invade Iraq and expressed support for Arab efforts to persuade Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to go peacefully into exile to avoid war in the region.
Bush’s declaration effectively sets late March as a deadline for action, although officials from other nations suggest a decision could come sooner. The next two key dates in the diplomatic process are Wednesday, when Secretary of State Colin Powell is to address the United Nations Security Council, and Feb. 14, when UN inspectors make their next report on Iraqi weapons programs.
Iraq on Thursday asked UN weapons inspectors to come to Baghdad before Feb. 14 to talk about “strengthening cooperation and transparency.” Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said that Iraq still has time to avert a war by cooperating more fully but that Baghdad has failed so far to do so.
As the Bush administration pressed its case for war, the president spent much of his day talking to European and Arab leaders to demonstrate his commitment to a diplomatic solution.
Bush met separately at the White House with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who pledged Rome’s support for military action, and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, whose country is working with other Arab nations to persuade Hussein to go into exile.
Prince Saud said after the meeting that he did not discuss the possibility of a Hussein exile with Bush, though other Saudi officials are working on that issue with the Bush administration.
“We remain committed to seeking a way for a diplomatic solution to the situation in Iraq. We remain hopeful that there will be a way to do so,” Prince Saud said outside the White House.
Bush said that should Hussein “choose to leave the country, along with a lot of the other henchmen who have tortured the Iraqi people, we would welcome that.” But, he added: “This is a matter or weeks, not months. In other words, for the sake of peace, this issue must be resolved.”
Rebutting France and Germany’s outright opposition to an immediate attack on Iraq, leaders of eight other European nations, including Italy, Spain and Britain, signed a letter expressing support for working through the UN to disarm Hussein, though not explicitly backing military action. The letter was published Thursday in European newspapers.
“The Iraqi regime and its weapons of mass destruction represent a clear threat to world security,” the leaders wrote. “We must remain united in insisting that his regime be disarmed.”
Addressing the break between the U.S. and Germany and France over the issue, the leaders added, “The trans-Atlantic relationship must not become a casualty of the current Iraqi regime’s persistent attempts to threaten world security.”
Still, criticism of what many foreign leaders see as Bush’s rush to war continued Thursday.
Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa, condemned Bush and the possibility of war in blistering terms.
“One power with a president who has no foresight and cannot think properly is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust,” Mandela told the International Women’s Forum in Johannesburg.
Meanwhile, Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham, meeting with Powell in Washington, cautioned the U.S. against acting alone. “If one party, one state, acts by itself, it takes the responsibility by itself, it risks consequences in a complicated area . . . which would be very serious,” Graham said.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri, who met at the White House with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, warned that war, and particularly the killing of Iraqi civilians, could stir resentment in the Islamic world.
There were news reports Thursday, quoting diplomatic sources, that Jordan had agreed to let U.S. planes use its airspace and to allow the U.S. to base troops in Jordan to conduct search-and-rescue missions into Iraq in the event of a war. However, Jordanian Information Minister Mohammed Affash Adwan denied the reports. Sources in Jordan also said there was an agreement for the U.S. to provide Jordan with anti-missile batteries before any attack on Iraq.
On Capitol Hill, Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee pressed administration officials on why Bush opposes giving weapons inspectors more time. Sen. Joseph Biden, the committee’s ranking Democrat, accused the administration of pursuing an undisciplined policy that placed too much emphasis on the use of military might.
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told the committee that global support for the U.S. is broader than most realize. He said 22 nations have expressed support and have agreed to make some contribution to a war effort. Nine nations have pledged troops, Armitage said, though the U.S. and Britain would provide the bulk of the military presence.
Berlusconi said prior to his lunch with Bush that Italy would stand by the U.S. because “we will never forget that we owe our freedom, our wealth to the United States.”
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who arrives Friday for a meeting with Bush at Camp David, and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar met in Madrid Thursday and told reporters that Hussein must be disarmed. Blair warned that force may be necessary. Aznar said he hoped the crisis would be resolved through the UN “to make sure this peace and security is reached in a legal way, not an illegal way.”
Bush spoke Thursday by phone to Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Barroso and Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson and told both leaders that he would continue to consult with allies before making a decision on military action. But Bush also told them that “time was running out,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
While Bush emphasized diplomacy, Vice President Dick Cheney told the Conservative Political Action Committee that the U.S. remains ready to go beyond such means.
“We will not permit a brutal dictator with ties to terror and a record of reckless aggression to dominate the Middle East and threaten the United States of America,” Cheney said.
