President George W. Bush urged the United Nations on Thursday to force Iraq to disarm and said action was inevitable if Baghdad failed to do so. In a dramatic day at the U. N. General Assembly, Secretary-General Kofi Annan questioned Bush’s right to go to war against Iraq and said multilateral action was the only way to enforce U.
N. resolutions. Iraq, which has refused to allow the return of U. N. arms inspectors who left in 1998 after years of strife with President Saddam Hussein’s government, called Bush’s speech a litany of lies motivated by ”revenge, oil, personal ambitions and the security of Israel.’ ‘ Bush, who has condemned Iraq as a member of an ”axis of evil” and has openly declared his intention to oust Saddam from power, told the General Assembly: ”Saddam Hussein’s regime is a grave and gathering danger. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced — the just demands of peace and security will be met — or action will be unavoidable.’ ‘ He asked if the United Nations would ”serve the purpose of its founding or will it be irrelevant?’ ‘ But to the relief of allies alarmed by months of U.
S. warnings suggesting an imminent attack, Bush did not explicitly mention possible U. S. unilateral steps. Foreign states welcomed Bush’s apparent willingness to pursue diplomatic pressure, seeing a glimmer of hope that a tough U. N.
stand could avert war by persuading Iraq to accept renewed U. N. weapons inspections. A senior U. S. official said Secretary of State Colin Powell would meet foreign ministers of the other permanent members of the U.
The Essay on Full Story Iraq Iraqi Saddam
In his first visit to Baghdad as head of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, Garner was expected to visit a power-generating plant, a water treatment plant and Yarmuk Hospital on the city's west side. "What better day in your life can you have than to be able to help somebody else, to help other people, and that is what we intend to do," Garner told reporters at Baghdad ...
N. Security Council — Britain, China, France and Russia — on Friday and work quickly on a new resolution. NO TALKS WITH IRAQ Danish Prime Minister Anders Fog Rasmussen, current president of the European Union, said he believed Iraq would have ”very few weeks to comply” with a new resolution. A U. S.
official said any resolution would go far beyond resuming U. N. weapons inspections and would demand compliance on a range of issues. ”There are not going to be any negotiations with Iraq,’ ‘ the official said. Bush issued a fierce indictment of Saddam, saying he had engaged in a ”decade of defiance” of post-Gulf War U. N.
demands by developing weapons of mass destruction and repressing his own people.
