Europeans Seek to Rein in American War Machine

By Huda Majeed Saleh, Reuters, Friday 10 January 2003

BAGHDAD (Reuters)—Europe moved to stay America’s hand over Iraq on Friday, as top officials spoke out against a rush to war on the basis of inconclusive weapons inspections.

Without proof, it would be very difficult to start a war, European Union foreign policy coordinator Javier Solana said.

As President Bush continued to mobilize his forces and met Iraqi opposition leaders, one of President Saddam Hussein’s main Iraqi foes said an invasion could destabilize the Middle East and warned that the sort of massive occupying force Washington envisages would face popular armed resistance.

We reject the idea of an invasion and occupation of Iraqi territory, said Shi’ite Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim.

After U.N. inspectors told the Security Council on Thursday they had found no smoking gun to challenge Iraq’s insistence it has no nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, Washington made clear it still felt Baghdad was defying the United Nations.

With the world’s eyes turning to North Korea , which has admitted developing nuclear weapons and pulled out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty on Friday, U.S. officials insisted Iraq posed a major threat, however little the inspections found.

Chief inspector Hans Blix told the Security Council Iraq had failed to answer a great many questions. The United States said if Iraq continued to deceive it would again be in material breach of Council resolutions -- language that could mean war.

In Iraq, U.N. experts visited three sites on Friday, including a rocket fuel plant which Britain has alleged may be developing missiles to carry chemical or germ warheads.

EUROPE HESITANT

The United States is doubling its 60,000-strong force in the Gulf. The Pentagon has told a further 7,000 Marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, to get ready, the Marine Corps said.

But EU Commission President Romano Prodi called for calm: War is not and must not be inevitable, he said in Greece, which plans to lead an EU peace mission to Arab capitals soon.

The 15 EU nations are sharply divided over Iraq. Britain is mobilizing its forces—including a big naval landing force led by flagship carrier Ark Royal—alongside the Americans despite grave doubts within Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labour party.

The bloc’s other main military power, France, is cooler, insisting on an international mandate for any war. Germany, the biggest economy, opposes outright the idea of attacking Iraq.

Inspections should continue and for that reason there are no grounds for military action, Berlin’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gunter Pleuger, said in New York.

Britain’s U.N. envoy, too, said there was no undue focus on Blix’s next report to the Council on January 27.

Washington has little need of European military assistance and has made clear it is willing to fight alone if need be, despite agreeing to seek United Nations backing last autumn.

MAJOR COMMITMENT

In Turkey, a key NATO ally, Prime Minister Abdullah Gul wrote urging neighboring Iraq to comply with U.N. resolutions. Muslim Turkey fears war would hurt its security and economy and has dragged its feet over backing Washington. But Gul agreed to U.S. inspections of Turkish bases to assess their usefulness.

Further away, another close U.S. ally, Australia, said it might send troops to the Middle East in the coming weeks.

Washington has sketched plans for a post-Saddam Iraq that it says would be the most ambitious since its occupation of Germany and Japan after World War II. Critics portray that as a grab for Iraq’s vast oil wealth and say it could get bogged down in the ethnically and religiously divided nation of 23 million.

Do you think that an American-installed government which does not respect the Iraqi nation and Islam could last long? said Iran’s former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

In the Gaza Strip, a leader of the Palestinian group Hamas urged Iraqis to adopt the suicide bomb tactics against any invaders that Hamas has employed against Israelis.

Blow yourselves up against the American army, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi told a pro-Iraq rally. Bomb them in Baghdad.