WASHINGTON/CAIRO, 11 November 2002 — The United States will go to war if Iraq fails to cooperate with UN weapons inspectors, US officials warned yesterday, as US newspapers published leaked plans for an invasion of up to 250,000 troops. “If I were (Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein I would take this with a great deal of concern and seriousness,” Secretary of State Colin Powell told CBS television when asked about the war plans. “He knows what we’re doing. He can see what’s going on in the region.”

Powell and other officials welcomed last week’s UN Security Council resolution giving Iraq one last chance to shed its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs. However, they insisted Washington would act with any allies it can muster if Baghdad fails to comply and the world body will not carry out its threat of “serious consequences.”

In Baghdad, Iraqi state television reported Saddam had called an emergency session of Iraq’s Parliament to debate the resolution. “We will know early on whether or not Saddam Hussein intends to cooperate,” Powell told Black Entertainment Television. Rice said US officials were waiting to see if Iraq would comply, but remained skeptical.

Meanwhile, US newspapers reported leaked Pentagon plans for an invasion of Iraq with up to 250,000 troops that envisioned quickly seizing much of the country and isolating forces loyal to Saddam in Baghdad and Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit. Arab foreign ministers and officials meeting in Cairo said the resolution offered hope for a peaceful alternative to war against Iraq. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said after talks between Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri and President Hosni Mubarak that the resolution “provides the opportunity for a peaceful settlement”.

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shara, whose country surprised the international community by backing the resolution, said it had “pushed the phantom of war into the distance for several weeks or several months”. “I am satisfied with that. Our goal is to spare Iraq and the region from a military strike. This was a principle which we were not prepared to abandon in any form,” Shara told reporters in Cairo.

Arab League chief Amr Moussa said the meeting of Arab foreign ministers would issue a resolution “concerning the threat to attack Iraq”, Egypt’s state Middle East News Agency reported. (Agencies)