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Anti-war protesters at the White House gates chanted "No War on Iraq"
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WASHINGTON,
October 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – One of the
increasingly few obstacles blocking a U.S. aggression against Iraq has
almost been removed, with U.S. President George W. Bush, who insists
on attacking Iraq even if unilaterally, reaching a deal with House
Leaders to the effect he must notify them "not later" than
48 hours after attacking Iraq.
According
to the deal released Wednesday, October 2, Bush may use force against
Iraq in a manner "necessary and appropriate", Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"The
president is pleased that the resolution gives him the ‘tools he
needs’" to launch war on Iraq "and that it does so in a
way that does not tie his hands," Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer
told reporters.
Announcing
the deal shortly after the White House made the agreed-upon resolution
public, Fleischer said Bush believes that chances for approval by
Republicans and opposition Democrats in the House was
"exceptionally strong."
The
resolution requires Bush to notify House and Senate leaders before any
military action, or not later than 48 hours after it begins, that
diplomacy has been exhausted or is doomed to fail.
"The
president is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States
as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to: 1)
defend the national security of the United States against the
continuing threat posed by Iraq, and 2) enforce all relevant United
Nations resolutions regarding Iraq," according to the text.
With
the U.S. Senate still trying to bridge differences between Republicans
and opposition Democrats, the House International Relations Committee
was to take up the bill Wednesday, ahead of a full House vote expected
next week.
Lawmakers
will have opportunities to change the language, but they are unlikely
to mount any serious challenge to a resolution agreed to by leaders of
both parties and the White House, according to AFP.
Meanwhile,
U.S. officials said Wednesday that the United States is stepping up
pressure on U.N. Security Council members as it is wary that an
agreement between the United Nations and Iraq on the return of arms
inspectors will hurt its case for a tough new U.N. resolution on
disarmament.
At
the United Nations, U.S. diplomats were to meet separately with
British, French and Russian colleagues to try to craft new rules for
inspections, a day before chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix is to brief
the Security Council on the deal he reached with Iraq Tuesday, October
1, in Vienna, the officials said.
"This
is a call to action," one senior State Department official said,
echoing Secretary of State Colin Powell's appeal late Tuesday to the
Security Council to keep up the pressure on Iraq.
"We
don't want what happened in Vienna to become an excuse for
inaction," a second official said.
The
inspectors could return to Iraq under existing resolutions, but
Washington is opposed and has signaled it will "thwart" any
move to send Blix's team back until a new resolution is approved.
"We
do not believe that they should go back in under the old set of
resolutions and under the old inspection regime, and therefore we do
not believe that they should go in until they have new instructions in
the form of a new resolution," he said.
The
senior official claimed that Blix, who reports to the Security
Council, had not been able to address those restrictions at his
meetings in Vienna because he did not yet have a mandate to do so.
It
is the details of that mandate that the diplomats at the United
Nations were to work on Wednesday, the official said.
"We're
OK with what Blix is doing now; it's what he is going to be able to do
that we're concerned about," the official said. "He was not
able to address the palaces issue because he doesn't have instructions
to do so."
That
official and others said there was general agreement among the
veto-wielding five permanent Security Council members – Britain,
China, France, Russia and the United States – to give Blix a new
mandate, AFP said.
Russia,
which last month had said it did not see the need for any new
resolution, has now backed off that position, with Foreign Minister
Igor Ivanov saying Wednesday that Moscow could go along with one
"if necessary".
China,
which has remained largely silent on the issue, is expected to
abstain.
However,
the U.S. officials said that profound differences still existed with
France on whether there should be one all-inclusive resolution,
containing the U.N. demands as well as the option to use military
force in the event of non-compliance, or two resolutions.
Until
and unless that rift is bridged, the drafting of new rules for the
inspectors is compromised, the officials said.
"If
we solve the issue of consequences with the French, then we think the
Council can come together with new authority," one official said.
France
is insisting on two resolutions, one with the demands and, later, a
second one, if necessary, that would lay out the consequences for
failure to comply.
Washington
is becoming increasingly annoyed by the French position, and one U.S.
official predicted that unless there was movement by week's end, that
irritation would begin to become public.
The
official recalled that Bush had challenged the United Nations on
September 12 to prove its relevance by dealing with Iraq in
"weeks, not months" and said patience was wearing thin.
"If
we don't come away with a significant feeling of satisfaction by the
end of this week, there will be a push to start questioning the
relevance of the Security Council," the official said.
"Most
of that will be directed at France."
With
the diplomatic and public relations maneuvers going on, warplanes
roared off the scorching deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft
carrier Wednesday with sailors and pilots saying they are waiting for
the call to focus on military action against Iraq.
"Our
resolve will be set when our nation's resolve is," Lieutenant
Anton Orr, who pilots a single seater F/A-18C Hornet, said of the
current Iraq crisis.
"We
don't set policy, we just follow it," Orr, who goes by the call
name of "Gasm", told AFP.
The
Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), weighing 97,500 tones, is responsible for
helping enforce a "no-fly zone" over southern Iraq,
code-named Operation Southern Watch (OSW), which Britain and the
United States imposed after the 1991 Gulf War.
The
so-called "no-fly zones" are not sanctioned by any U.N.
resolution.
Washington's
fifth Nimitz-class aircraft carrier has a crew of some 5,500, around
70 aircraft with its embarked air wing and is currently in the
northern Arabian Sea about to enter Gulf waters.
The
ship, which "stands ready at all times," will also front the
U.S.-led multinational fleet, the maritime interception force (MIF),
which patrols Gulf waters to enforce a U.N. embargo that has stifled
Iraq for more than a decade.
"We're
just out here to do our job," said U.S. Navy spokesman Chief Dave
Rush.
What
that job will be looked unpredictable Wednesday, a day after an accord
in Vienna between Iraq and the United Nations for a swift return of
weapons inspectors to Baghdad.
