[Peace] BBC

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

Saturday, 7 September, 2002, 12:06 GMT 13:06 UK 
Bush and Blair plot Iraq strategy

 
Everyday life goes on in Baghdad - for now

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is heading to the US for talks with President 
George W Bush on building an international coalition for possible military 
action against Baghdad. 
The two leaders will meet at the US president's retreat, Camp David, to 
discuss what can be done to stop Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from developing 
and using weapons of mass destruction. 

 
Bush is trying to make the case for action
 
But while the UK Government has said the military option must not be ruled 
out, Mr Blair is also expected to urge Mr Bush to work through the United 
Nations Security Council to secure backing for tough action. 

And this view could already be gaining some support in the Bush 
administration. 

The Washington Post reports that the US president will leave open the 
possibility of a new round of UN weapons inspections when he addresses the UN 
next week. 

Arab League General Secretary Amr Moussa has said that from his contacts with 
the Baghdad authorities he is optimistic a deal can be reached to allow the 
return of inspectors to Iraq. 

Mr Moussa, who has warned that a strike on Iraq would "open the gates of 
hell", also said he believed Washington would not attack if the inspections 
resumed. 

Ahead of their meeting, Mr Bush and Mr Blair have been trying to persuade the 
other permanent members of the Security Council, Russia, France and China, to 
support their stance on Iraq. 

All three countries have raised doubts about the legal implications of going 
to war against Iraq and the effect it could have on stability in the Middle 
East. 

Any one of them, as permanent Security Council members, could veto a UN 
resolution backing military action against Iraq. 

Key speech 

The meeting between Mr Bush and Mr Blair, which they insist is not a council 
of war, will test just how open the president is to working through the UN 
and to giving diplomacy one last chance. 



Iraq is clean 
 
Iraq's UN ambassador  
The two men could decide to ask the UN to pass a resolution putting the onus 
firmly on Iraq to prove that it is not developing chemical, biological or 
nuclear weapons. 

Mr Bush will address the UN General Assembly next Thursday - a year and a day 
after the attacks which triggered the war on terror. 

The Washington Post says senior administration officials have told them that 
he plans to tell world leaders that unless they take quick, unequivocally 
strong action to disarm Iraq, the US will be forced to act on its own. 

Bush's diplomatic drive  
Friday: Calls to leaders of Russia, China and France 
Saturday: Talks with British PM 
Monday: Meeting with Canadian PM 
Thursday: Speech at the UN  
This suggests, the papers says, that White House officials have been 
persuaded that working through the UN is, at least for the moment, advisable. 

Both the US and UK Governments say they have evidence that Iraq has 
biological and chemical weapons and the potential for a nuclear capability. 

Mr Blair has promised to publish a dossier showing this in a few weeks' time. 

Suspect buildings 

On Friday, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad al-Duri, 
repeated his country's denials that it has such weapons. 

 
Tony Blair at Heathrow Airport on Saturday
 
"Iraq is clean," he told American television. "We no longer belong to this 
club of mass destruction weapons."


Suspicions were again raised after officials from the International Atomic 
Energy Agency on Friday said that satellite photos of Iraq showed unexplained 
construction at sites that UN inspection teams used to visit. 

However, no conclusions could be drawn from this on whether Iraq had 
restarted nuclear weapons programmes, said a spokesman for the Vienna-based 
IAEA.