Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz challenged Powell to prove that Iraq had WMD.

WASHINGTON, February 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The world’s attention will be riveted on U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday, February 5, when he gives the U.N. Security Council his “cast-iron” evidence that Iraq is developing weapons of mass destruction.

Faced with growing public opposition at home and abroad to military action against Iraq as well as deep concern in the Security Council over the use of force, Powell is under intense pressure to deliver convincing evidence of Iraqi malfeasance, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Sunday, February 2.

And as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee heard testimony from U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Negroponte and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage on the U.S. response to the report to the U.N. by Hans Blix, influential U.S. senators have asked for Powell himself to appear before Congress before he reports to the council his new evidence.

Others, in addition, expressed skepticism that Iraq presented an imminent danger that justified war, at least while the inspectors were present.

Much has been said of the possibility of reprising the so-called “Stevenson presentation” of October 25, 1962 when then-US ambassador to the U.N., Adlai Stevenson, displayed photographic proof to the Security Council that the Soviet Union had deployed nuclear missiles in Cuba.

Powell himself has said he “would love to have that kind of material to present.”

“We talk about it a lot,” Powell told reporters last week. “But whether there will be a ‘Stevenson photo’ or ‘Stevenson presentation’ that would be as persuasive as Adlai Stevenson was in 1962, that I can’t answer.”

However, Powell will face a more daunting task than the U.S. envoy during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, AFP quoted political analysts as saying.

U.S. President George W. Bush gave a hint of what was to come when he described in his annual “State of the Union” address to Congress a litany of Iraqi violations dealing with poison gases, anthrax, the concealment of mobile weapons laboratories and its refusal to allow U2 spy plane over flights.

Powell is also expected to present to the council electronic intercepts gathered by  “the most jealously guarded of all U.S. intelligence secrets,” the National Security Agency (NSA).

Failure will badly damage U.S. President George W. Bush’s determination to build a coalition to disarm Iraq by force, further isolate Washington in world opinion and could set the stage for a showdown between the United States and the rest of the world over the relevance of the U.N.

Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace warned that the wrong-headed policy of the U.S. could shatter the world alliance, noting that if Powell failed to convince member states of his case and the U.S. decided to go to war unilaterally, the long-term costs to it could be “huge.”

“A brutal invasion that kills thousands of Iraqis could shatter that alliance forever,” he warned.

Cirincione further argued that “Secretary Powell does not have the kind of evidence the US had on Cuba.”

Success, however, will further ramp up pressure on Iraq and boost efforts to forge as large a coalition as possible by improving chances for a Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force.

There remains a question: Will it be enough to overcome the skepticism of the French, Russians, Chinese and Germans who are willing to give U.N. inspectors more time to do their work?

The analysts believe the answer will depend on many factors, including whether council members will find it wise to spoil their relations with the United States over Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Iraqi Officials Will Not Show Up February 5

As Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz challenged Powell to prove to the U.N. Security Council that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction, no senior Iraqi official will attend the February 5 UNSC session.

“Neither me nor any other Iraqi official will go to New York to attend the February 5 meeting. We will be represented by our ambassador to the U.N., Mohammad Al-Duri,” AFP quoted Aziz as telling reporters.

Security Council diplomats said Friday, January 31, that Iraq had asked to be represented by a top official at the upcoming meeting of the world body, during which U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell plans to present his evidence of what Washington calls Baghdad’s deceit of U.N. arms inspectors.

On Thursday, January 30, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz has denied U.S. President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair’s claims that Iraq has links to Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network. 

Aziz dismissed Bush’s speech as more of the same old rhetoric, adding that “now people are more unconvinced about the Bush allegations than any time before.”

“I absolutely deny that. I absolutely deny that and I challenge Bush and his government to present any, any evidence of that,” Aziz said in an interview broadcast on U.S. television.