Powell says Saddam trying to split international community
WASHINGTON (AP) – Secretary of State Colin Powell, warned yesterday that Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, must not be allowed to succeed in his quest to split the international community into “arguing factions.”
In a speech, Powell showed concern about the increasingly defiant attitude of America’s critics on the UN Security Council in advance of an expected vote next week on a new resolution to authorise war against Iraq.
Describing UN inspections as futile, Powell said Iraq’s intelligence agency in late January transported chemical and biological agents “to areas far away from Baghdad, near the Syrian and Turkish borders in order to conceal them.”
“Unfortunately, the inspection effort isn’t working,” Powell said, addressing a gathering of several hundred at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
Powell spoke just hours after the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Russia joined forces in vowing to block the US-backed resolution.
France is leading a campaign in the Security Council in support of allowing UN inspectors to continue their work.
Powell said his problem with the position of France, Germany and Russia, is that they have failed to recognise that Saddam still has not made a decision to comply with Security Council demands.
“He has not made that strategic choice,” Powell said. “And I don’t think any one of them would argue that he has.”
Powell added: “We will see in the next few days whether or not he (Saddam) understands the situation he is in, and makes that choice.”
A State Department official said Powell was not referring to a military timetable, but rather a series of events in the next few days, including the anticipated Security Council vote next week.
Meanwhile, diplomatic sources said that if a war occurs, the US Air Force will be able to use Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. It will take on 130 US planes, the ostensible objective being to continue enforcing the no-flight zone over Northern Iraq, the sources said.