BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON, March 4: The United States ordered 60,000 more troops to the Gulf, despite signs that an invasion of Iraq might be delayed until April, as big powers and ally Turkey persisted on Tuesday in complicating its military plans.
Iraq showed both cooperation and defiance in its efforts to head off a US-led invasion that Washington says will rid it of banned weapons. It scrapped more al-Samoud 2 missiles, but President Saddam Hussein forecast victory in any war and branded US President George Bush the “despot of the century”.
Ankara’s surprise decision not to let US troops launch an attack on Iraq from Turkey has upset plans for a mid-March invasion, but Ankara indicated a new parliamentary vote could be held.
US defence officials announced the dispatch of the fresh troops to join a more than 250,000-strong US and British force as a divided UN Security Council considered whether to approve a new draft resolution authorizing war.
Washington has signalled it will push the resolution to a vote next week despite misgivings in the 15-member Council. Big powers France, Russia and China say UN arms inspectors in Iraq must be given more time, and Moscow threatened to use its veto in the Council.
“Russia has this right and if the situation so demands, Russia will of course use its right of veto — as an extreme measure — to avoid the worst development of the situation,” Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said, according to a translated version of a BBC World Service interview in London.
“Russia would not support any decision that would directly or indirectly lead to a war with Iraq,” he added.
INVASION DELAY?: Whatever the outcome of a vote, US officials and defence experts say Turkey’s opposition to up to 60,000 US troops launching a “northern front” against Iraq from its territory could delay an attack until later this month or early next month.
They say Saturday’s decision by Turkey’s parliament could also spark problems over control of northern Iraq’s oil fields, which could be destroyed by Iraq or seized by Kurds in the Kurdish-controlled region.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Turkey had made the situation “more complicated”. Analysts say the delay could stretch for two weeks or more, possibly into April after the new moon that would increase the US advantage in night fighting.
If Ankara still says “no”, US forces designated for Turkey might have to go instead to Kuwait for a march northward.
The White House, which has justified the US march to war by saying Iraq has failed to account for chemical and biological weapons since 1991, has dismissed Baghdad’s disarmament efforts as the “mother of all distractions”.—Reuters
