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Collin Powell
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Additional
reporting by Khaled Mamdouh, IOL Staff
DOHA,
November 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell hinted late Friday, November 8, that Washington would stop
calling for a change of regime in Baghdad if Iraq
agreed to get rid of its (alleged) weapons of mass destruction and
cooperated fully with the U.N. arms inspectors. Analysts disagreed,
however, accusing Powell of sweet talking the Arab public opinion.
"If
the Iraqi regime got rid of these weapons of mass destruction and were
fully cooperating with the inspectors, then, in effect, it has changed
its policies; it is a changed regime," Powell said on Qatar-based al-Jazeera
Satellite Channel.
"The
reason for regime change in the beginning, in 1998, under the previous
American presidential administration, was because Iraq would not disarm,
it would not comply with the resolutions," Powell went on.
"If
it complies with those disarmament resolutions, in effect, it has
adopted new policies, which suggest a change in the thinking in Baghdad
and a changed regime."
The
Secretary of State stressed, however, that his country reserved the
right to act against Iraq if it violated Security Council Resolution
1441 passed unanimously on Friday.
"The
United States retains its option to act if the Security Council doesn't
act," he declared.
Powell
said the vote Friday "shows that the international community is
unified" in its position on Iraq.
"What
we succeeded in doing is getting all 15 members of the Security Council
together behind a single resolution," he said after recalling that
"we worked very closely with the French and the Russians and all of
the other members of the Security Council in reconciling different
points of view and different positions that were held."
However,
Powell overlooked some important facts, according to analysts, on top of
which is that Iraq repeatedly denied possession of any weapons of mass
destruction, accepted the unconditional return of U.N. inspectors, and
even challenged the U.S. and Britain to come up with evidence backing
their claims.
The
unified stance Powell mentioned is, according to analysts, a joke.
France,
Russia, and China, immediately after passing the resolution declared
they were against the use of force, while the U.S. (as Powell himself
stated) retained the right to attack Iraq unilaterally if it violated
the resolution.
The
question is who will decide such violation, analysts wonder.
Other
observers lashed out at the U.S. for intimidating Iraq, based on its
mighty military force, citing the so-called no-fly zones in the north
and south of the Arab country.
There
is no U.N. resolution supporting such zones, however, they are used by
U.S. and British aircraft to attack Iraq almost daily. Where is the
international legitimacy then? Charged observers.
So
long accused of seeking to start a war on Iraq, the United States
launched a campaign to convince the Arab public opinion that Washington
only wants peace from the battle to disarm Baghdad.
Powell
led the charge Friday night in a rapid-fire series of interviews with
Arabic-language television channels in which he repeatedly stressed the
peaceful intentions of the global superpower.
"Let's
not look for a way to get to war," Powell told the Dubai-based
Middle East Broadcasting Corporation.
"Let's
look for a way to get to peace.
"What
President Bush and the American government is interested in now is how
to get to peace, not how to get to war, how to disarm Saddam Hussein so
that the region becomes more peaceful and more stable."
"If
Iraq cooperates with the inspectors, then we have a peaceful way out of
this problem," the Secretary added on the Lebanese Broadcasting
Corporation (LBC).
