Iraq defiant as confrontation day nears. US warns of war

There is still no sign that Iraq would back down from its decision to bar US citizens working with the UN weapon inspection team in Iraq from operating in its territory. The special UN delegation sent by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan ended their emergency diplomatic mission and left Baghdad yesterday without making any progress in the case.

In Washington, top U.S. military and diplomatic officials met at the White House to discuss what actions the United States might take to force Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to comply with international arrangements.

Although the US government seems to be keen on a solution with the UN, it has not ruled out the use of force against Iraq. But it made it clear that Iraq must back down from its demand to remove American inspectors from the U.N. teams looking for evidence of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and missiles inside Iraq.

UN's Richard Butler charged that Iraq could rapidly produce chemical weapons if the UN special Commission UNISCOM charged with disarming Iraq does not resume its activity soon warned . Butler warned that Iraq has the potential of rapidly producing chemical weapons using some of its chemical products being made in its local factories.

The latest American suggestion is to try and push on Monday in the Security Council for new travel and economic sanctions against Iraq rather than use force in any way for the time being. President Clinton said yesterday he had no reason to hope that Iraq would give ground to end the stalemate.

Yesterday, Iraq renewed its warning that it will not tolerate flights by a U.S. spy planes over Iraqi territory, flights which are scheduled to occur on Monday. If Iraq were to fire on the plane, a senior Pentagon official said the United Nations would have no choice but to view that as an "act of war."

The US owned and piloted U-2 planes are on flights for the United Nations to surveillance on Iraq's compliance with UN resolutions. This has been a sore point also with the Iraqis. Richard Butler, the head of weapon's inspector in Iraq said that these planes are under UN control and it was his decision to approve the resumption of the U2 flights this coming Monday.

Asked if the United Nations should respond to Iraq's defiance with a military strike, Clinton gave a noncommittal answer. "It would be a mistake to rule in or out any particular course of action at this moment," he said.

There is great concern about the weakening effect such action will have on the coalition supporting the sanctions, and the negative reception of such actions in the Arab world, a point denied by Clinton. Sheikh Zayed of the United Arab Emirates urged reconciliation with Iraq, and getting past the problems that afflicted the Arab countries as a result of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and subsequent events.

Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz will be visiting New York for a meeting with the UN security council next week .