Saturday, Feb 01, 2003
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By Sridhar Krishnaswami
The Prime Minister of Britain, Tony Blair, arrived here on Thursday night and will be meeting the President at Camp David on Friday. It is seen as a crucial meeting of the two leaders as Britain is the only nation that is openly on the side of the U.S. Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush are expected to go over many details, political, diplomatic and operational, but no one expects the American President to be setting any final date on Friday for a military strike against Iraq. By the same token, not many are expecting the British leader to goad Mr. Bush into a diplomatic path. Privately, officials are saying that the U.S. may be willing to give the United Nations at least until February 14 when the top weapons inspector, Hans Blix, is due to give his second report to the Security Council. Germany, which takes over the Presidency of the Council for the month of February, had wanted Dr. Blix to come up with a second report. But, what the Bush administration does after the February 14 time-frame is anybody's guess. Washington has consistently maintained that it would not allow the world body any indefinite period of time on this Iraqi crisis. For now, all eyes and ears are on what the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, is going to tell the Security Council on February 5. The debate within the administration on how much to share with the Council and the international community apart, there are those in the world body who are quite sceptical of the additional information and intelligence that Gen. Powell may be bringing with him. The Russians have bluntly said that they are looking for compelling evidence or "undeniable proof''. In Washington, on Thursday, the President met with the Prime Minister of Italy and the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, besides placing calls to the leaders of Portugal and Sweden. Senior officials such as the Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, were on Capitol Hill before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, making the case against Iraq. Over the last few days, one of the things coming up in discussions is if the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, could be forced into exile as a way to avert war in West Asia. The Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia argued that this subject did not come up in his meeting with Mr. Bush. But every time the subject comes up there is a considerable body of opinion which says that Mr. Hussein will never voluntarily leave Baghdad or that there are indeed some countries to offer him refuge and asylum. Even one or two countries frequently mentioned such as Belarus and Mauritania have rejected the idea. Further, questions remain on the kind of "deal'' that is going to be struck for Mr. Hussein's exit from Baghdad, if this is going to happen at all. Washington is keeping the military pressure on, along with turning the heat on the diplomatic front. There are currently about 100,000 U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf area and this number is expected to double within the next three weeks. With four aircraft carriers already in the area or steaming in that direction, and two others likely to join, the U.S. has assembled a powerful navy with all the required air power. And the Air Force, with its long-range bombers, are on a high state of alert both within the U.S. and in bases overseas.
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