America speeds up plans for start of war in early March
By Roland Watson, James Bone and Philip Webster
(from http://www.timesonline.co.uk)
February 12, 2003
AMERICA has started accelerating the military and diplomatic pace towards war with Iraq, preparing itself for a conflict starting at the beginning of March.
General Tommy Franks, who will command US forces in the Gulf, will give President Bush today what may be his final briefing before he travels to Qatar to oversee the war. British officials have been viewing mid-March as the likely starting date for a war, but Pentagon planners want to maximise American forcesÍ night-fighting technological advantages by using the dark nights offered by the new moon in the first week of March.
Washington also wants to force the pace on the diplomatic front despite increasing demands from France, Germany and Russia for UN weapons inspectors in Iraq to be given more time and muscle.
In a direct challenge to Britain and America, France circulated to UN Security Council members yesterday detailed proposals for a ñcontainmentî option that could provide an alternative to war.
It would involve tripling the number of inspectors to as many as 360, opening more regional offices, increasing surveillance flights using US, French and Russian spy planes, and appointing a permanent UN co-ordinator resident in Baghdad.
It also suggests expanding the UN security unit now in Iraq so that it can monitor sites and help to freeze movement during inspections. Archivists and experts in customs and accounting would be recruited to improve the UNÍs understanding of IraqÍs weapons programmes.
Sources said that America conceivably could give up on the UN process, but British officials remained confident that Mr Bush would go along with their efforts to secure a second resolution in the 15-member Security Council next week that is vital to Tony BlairÍs attempts to persuade a doubting Labour Party and public. ñEven if we donÍt have the nine votes we need at the start of next week, we will start working to get them straightaway,î one senior diplomat said.
The language used by Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, in his report to the council on Friday will determine the toughness of the second resolution. British officials concede that it may fall short of an explicit authorisation of military action, saying only that Iraq has violated UN demands. Washington is considering calling the council into emergency session soon after Dr Blix reports simply to satisfy the legal requirement for going to war, but without voting on a second resolution.
Alan Greenspan, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, brought a different pressure for prompt action to bear on Mr Bush yesterday, saying that continued uncertainty over Iraq represented the biggest cloud hanging over the struggling US economy. White House officials said publicly that Mr Bush would continue to talk to world leaders in pursuit of a second UN resolution.
Britain is furious at the recent behaviour of the French in leading opposition to war. Mr Blair will now try to bring the European Union behind the existing UN resolution 1441 when leaders meet in Brussels on Monday.
Officials said that if the EU failed to back the original resolution, Europe would be seen as divided from top to bottom, and France would be to blame.
Copyright 2003 Times Newspapers Ltd.
Page created February 8, 2003 by Charlie Jenks.
