Bush turns up heat as U.N. awaits key weapons report

By JOHN YAUKEY
GNS Political Writer

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is applying intense pressure to the gun-shy United Nations Security Council to take a tough stand against Iraq as the international agency prepares to hear a progress report Friday by the weapons inspectors it sent there.

President Bush wants the Security Council to sanction the use of force against Iraq soon, and a negative assessment by inspectors could help him in the coming days win over council members now opposed to war. The most notable — France, Russia and China — back plans to bolster inspections with the hope they can continue indefinitely.

Bush and his top aides fanned out Thursday to make the case that Iraq is pursuing weapons of mass destruction and that the Security Council needs to back up its Nov. 8 resolution demanding disarmament with a second decree explicitly threatening war.

Sporting a green flight jacket at Naval Station Mayport in Florida, Bush said he was optimistic the Security Council would ultimately stand up to Iraq and not ''fade into history as an irrelevant debating society.''

''The Security Council must now decide whether it has the resolve to back its resolutions,'' said Bush, who has reserved the option of acting against Iraq without a use-of-force resolution if necessary.

On Capitol Hill, Secretary of State Colin Powell finished a third straight day of testimony, telling lawmakers ''we are reaching a moment of truth with respect to the relevance of the United Nations Security Council.''

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld chimed in, telling a Senate panel that U.S. forces are well prepared to occupy and rebuild Iraq after a war.

Earlier this week, Bush sent national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to New York City to meet with chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, who will make the report to the Security Council along with fellow inspector Mohamed El Baradei.

As an additional show of resolve for strong action by the Security Council, Powell will travel to the United Nations to deliver the administration's official response to the weapons report rather than leaving the task to John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Viewed by many abroad as the most credible member of the administration, Powell made a nearly 90-minute presentation to the Security Council last week, arguing Iraq is pursuing illegal chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

France and company

France in particular has confounded the Bush administration with its persistent stand against a resolution authorizing war.

Some analysts thought it was largely posturing, and that French President Jacques Chirac would eventually acquiesce to U.S. wishes.

But it doesn't appear he is budging.

''The use of force can only be a final recourse," Chirac defiantly asserted this week.

That was followed by a joint statement from France, Russia and Germany, also a member of the Security Council, calling for expanded inspections.

It remains to be seen how helpful the weapons report will be in winning over the Security Council.

Based on findings by weapons inspectors over the last few weeks, Blix and El Baradei are likely to report both problems and progress.

As recently as Wednesday, inspectors discovered Iraq was in possession of banned missiles.

The Bush administration will seize on that as evidence Iraq is in material breach of its obligations to the United Nations.

But this is the kind of finding that France has cited in the past several weeks as proof the inspections are working and should continue.

What's more, Iraq has recently agreed to fly-overs by U.S. and other spy planes and for scientists to be interviewed without being accompanied by government ''minders.''

''We are seeing a beginning of a change in attitude,'' El Baradei said this week.

Second resolution

Even though Bush has said he will act without a second resolution, he is under intense pressure even from Britain and other allies on Iraq to get some sort of approval from the Security Council.

Aware they might have to compromise on the wording, Bush administration diplomats have been working with Britain to float test language that might win Security Council support.
One version would simply declare Iraq in ''further material breach,'' essentially acknowledging that inspections are failing.

The hope is that if the Security Council will not sanction a war, it will at least get out of the way while the United States leads a coalition of the willing to wage one.

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© 2003, Gannett News Service