NEW YORK, Sept 23: US law makers warned on Sunday that a unilateral American military action against Iraq could draw in Israel in the conflict thereby leading to a bigger Middle-East war.
Appearing on CBS’s news talk show “Face the Nation” Senator Joseph Biden, the chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said if the Israelis became involved “it becomes an Arab-Israeli war.”
Mr Biden, asserted that if Israel responded to an attack no Muslim nation, including such critical allies as Saudi Arabia and Turkey, could not support the US effort against Iraq, even behind the scenes.
“And you would find probably every embassy in the Middle East burned to the ground before it went too far,” Mr Biden warned.
Mr Biden and others appearing on Sunday television talk shows responded to a report in The New York Times that said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had told the Bush administration he would retaliate if Iraq attacks Israel.
On CNN’s “Late Edition,” Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres would not say what Israel would do in the event of an Iraqi attack, but made it clear his country would coordinate its response with the United States.
Senator Richard Shelby, a top Republican on the Senate intelligence committee, said any retaliation by the Israelis could mean “a widespread war in the Middle East.”
“And also we’d be perceived, we’d be fighting side-by-side with the Israelis against all the Arab interests, and the war could spread,” the Alabama senator said on the talk show.
The New York Times said Sharon had told senior American officials privately of Israel’s intention to act, unlike in the 1991 Gulf War, when dozens of Iraqi Scud missiles struck without an Israeli response.
As the debate in the US Congress to give President Bush authority to wage a war against Iraq leader Saddam Hussein Senator Biden urged Mr Bush to make his case for US action based on his stated goal of ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction.
“That should be our international rationale for moving, if we move, not this new doctrine of pre-emption and this doctrine of “regime change,” because then what do you tell the Israelis?” he asked.
“Regime change” is the term President Bush has used in calling for Saddam’s ouster. The administration last week announced a new US security doctrine of pursuing preemptive action against potential enemies.
“If we make that the premise for our action, then in fact what ... pressure can we put on Israel not to do something that could make this an overall Middle East war?” Mr Biden asked.
Lawmakers predicted, however, that the United States would move against Iraq in the new year. Senator Biden also said President Bush should make his case on Iraq before the American public.
Senator Shelby said he expected both the US House of Representatives and the Senate to overwhelmingly pass a resolution giving Bush broad authority to attack Iraq though other lawmakers, mostly Democrats, have questioned the scope of the version proposed by the president last week.
“It’s much too broad,” said Senator Carl Levin, a Democrat and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said of the resolution being sought by President Bush. “I think you will find a number of Republicans as well as Democrats who will be working on some language with some limits on it,” Levin told “Fox News Sunday.”
Several lawmakers appearing on news programmes objected mainly to the White House wording authorizing use of force to “restore international peace and security in the region” around Iraq, which many said was a blank check for the administration to strike any country in the volatile area.