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22-2-03 Scotsman Rumsfeld: Our forces are ready for war By Gethin Chamberlain THE United States and Britain yesterday took another inexorable step towards war with Iraq as successful negotiations with Turkey opened the way to a war on two fronts and Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, warned that the stand-off with Saddam Hussein was entering its final phase. Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, claimed that US and British troops were now ready to take action whenever the order was given, although the apparent deal with Turkey means that it may be several days before all the final preparations are made for a two-pronged attack on Baghdad. But despite the advanced state of the military preparations, the US and Britain still have a mountain to climb if they are to convince enough members of the UN Security Council to back a second resolution authorising military action. The two countries are hoping to present the resolution to the Security Council on Monday and diplomats are engaged in a feverish round of arm-twisting as they attempt to secure the nine votes they need to put pressure on France, China and Russia, the other permanent members of the council. The backing of Spain and Bulgaria has already been secured but most of the pressure will now be focused on Angola, Guinea, Cameroon, Mexico, Chile and Pakistan, all non-permanent members of the council. According to one Bush administration official, all six "are really feeling the heat, and they are going to be feeling even more heat in coming days". The hope in Washington and London is that if they can secure a majority on the 15-member council, the three other nations which hold a veto will feel obliged to abstain rather than throwing out the resolution. But there is also some disagreement between the resolution's backers, with Britain favouring the imposition of a deadline for Iraqi compliance and the US preferring an open-ended ruling that would allow it to attack when it considered that Saddam had been given enough time. The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said he did not expect the resolution to set a deadline for Iraq to disarm. "I wouldn't expect the resolution itself to have a timeline but time is running out," he said. Mr Powell said the US wanted the resolution to point out Iraq's failure to comply with the resolution adopted unanimously by the council last year, threatening serious consequences if it continued to defy UN disarmament resolutions. But while the diplomacy continued, Mr Rumsfeld said the build-up of tens of thousands of US and British troops in the Gulf region had reached the point that they could launch an invasion whenever the order was given. "We are at a point where, if the president makes that decision, the department of defence is prepared and has the capabilities and the strategy to do that," he said. The military preparations have been boosted by the apparent agreement of Turkey to allow its bases to be used to launch an attack on Iraq. That would enable the US and British forces to attack on two fronts, stretching the Iraqi defences and shortening any potential campaign. Turkey had been holding out for £6 billion in aid from the US, which had offered about £3.7 billion, but yesterday the country's foreign minister, Yasar Yakis, said there was broad agreement on the conditions for deploying US troops in his country ahead of a possible war in Iraq, even if there were still outstanding issues regarding the military, economic and political dimensions of the deployment. "There is a very broad agreement on all subjects," he said. "I think we will be able to overcome any differences and mutually agree." The Turkish prime minister, Abdullah Gul, said he expected a result in the coming days: "It is certain that we understand their concerns and they understand ours in the best possible way and a result will be reached in the coming days," he said. NATO's top military commander in Europe has already ordered AWACS surveillance planes to Turkey to watch for any potential attack from Iraq. The planes will fly from their base in Geilenkirchen, Germany, to the Turkish air-force base in the central city of Konya in the next few days and are scheduled to be flying missions in defence of Turkish air space by Thursday. NATO is also sending Patriot anti-missile batteries to Turkey and is preparing to deploy anti-biochemical units. Meanwhile, Mr Straw yesterday warned Saddam that he was running out of time to secure a peaceful solution. "We are approaching the time when hard choices may have to be made," he said. He said that if Iraq refused to co-operate with weapons inspections, the Security Council had already threatened Iraq with serious consequences. "Diplomatic parlance is notoriously ambiguous, but in this case the terminology had only one meaning: disarmament by force," he said. With tensions rising in the Middle East, the Foreign Office has warned Britons to avoid all non-essential travel to Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. It also recommended that British nationals in those countries should maintain a "high level of vigilance" and consider whether their continued presence and that of their families is essential. The warning followed the shooting of a BAE Systems worker in Saudi Arabia.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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