DAVOS/BAGHDAD, 26 January 2003 — US Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday he had extensively discussed the use of Turkish bases for a possible attack on Iraq, as pressure built to allow UN arms inspectors more time to do their job.
The inspectors are due to make a key report to the UN Security Council tomorrow on progress in their search for banned nuclear, chemical and biological weapons Washington says Baghdad possesses. Iraq denies having such weapons programs.
European Union president Greece said there was an emerging consensus in the 15-nation bloc that the inspectors should be given more time if chief inspector Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohammed El Baradei requested it.
“Obviously there is a consensus that, yes, we should give them the necessary time if they ask,” Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou told a news conference at the World Economic Forum at the Swiss resort of Davos.
Powell said he had had “an extensive discussion” on the use of Turkish bases in a meeting with Prime Minister Abdullah Gul and ruling AKP party leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of Davos.
Asked if a deadline for agreement came up during the 75-minute meeting, Powell said: “We didn’t discuss deadlines. They have a good sense of the timing that’s involved. They understand our needs and I have a complete understanding of their political situation and their parliamentary situation, and we’re in close contact with each other.”
Gul called the talks “fruitful; and useful”, adding: “War is nobody’s choice, we want peace. But of course at the same time the preparation for all kinds of scenarios is very normal.”
Earlier Gul said Turkey could send troops into northern Iraq if it saw a risk of the country breaking up in a US-led war, or a threat to the ethnic Turkmen minority. He insisted Ankara had no territorial ambitions in Iraq, but said: “Not only the Turkmens but also the Kurds are our relatives there...We want to protect all of them if there is a massacre there.”
Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey also met Powell and a Foreign Ministry spokesman said she had offered neutral Swiss soil for a last-ditch meeting between the United States and Iraq to avert war. Powell said however the Swiss had made no formal offer.
On his way to Davos, Powell told reporters at least a dozen nations would back an attack on Iraq, even without a fresh UN resolution.
The commander of US forces in the Gulf, Gen. Tommy Franks, held talks in Riyadh yesterday with Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard. Assistant Defense Minister Prince Khaled ibn Sultan, Chief of Staff Gen. Saleh Al-Mahya and US Ambassador to the Kingdom Robert Jordan attended the meeting.
In Iraq, UN weapons inspectors failed to persuade two Iraqi scientists to agree to private interviews, a day after Washington accused Iraq of blocking such meetings in the search for banned weapons.
“(Inspectors) requested yesterday further interviews with Iraqi personnel in private. Two individuals did not agree to it without the presence of a witness. Thus, the interviews did not take place today,” a UN statement said.
An Iraqi thought to be a scientist visited a Baghdad hotel housing UN arms inspectors, accompanied by officials of the Iraqi Monitoring Directorate, which liases with the UN experts.
But he left 90 minutes later alone, carrying documents and refusing to speak to reporters. The Arabic satellite channel Al- Jazeera named the scientist as Alaa Al-Jaafari from the government Al-Fatah Military Industries Establishment.
The United States says accused Iraq on Friday of preventing scientists from taking part in private interviews. A senior Iraqi official said on Thursday his office had tried to persuade scientists to submit to unmonitored questioning, but they had refused to do so.
In the morning, a young Iraqi man, carrying files, grabbed the wheel of a UN vehicle, shouting to weapons inspectors “please save me, please save me”. The man refused to surrender to Iraqi guards outside the UN premises at the former Canal Hotel, but a UN security officer managed to get him out of the vehicle and handed him over to Iraqi soldiers.
Minutes earlier another Iraqi, carrying knives, tried to force his way into the UN compound in Baghdad but was blocked, a UN spokesman said.
US and British aircraft hit a target in southern Iraq’s “no-fly” zone on Friday, and Iraq said yesterday that three Iraqi civilians were injured in the attack. The US military said the US-British patrol had attacked an air defense command and control communication facility near Al-Haswah, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad in the Babel area. The Iraqi News Agency said the aircraft had hit non-military installations in Babel province, injuring three people.
The first convoy of Western “human shield” volunteers drove out of London yesterday on double-decker buses bound for Baghdad. The roughly 50 volunteers, ranging from a 19-year-old factory worker to a 60-year-old former diplomat, formed the vanguard of a series of caravans organizers say will take hundreds, possibly thousands, of anti-war activists to Iraq.
Dismissing criticism by some that they are naively playing into Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s hands, the volunteers plan to fan out to heavily populated areas of Baghdad and other parts of the country as a deterrent to possible US-led bombing.
“We’re not a bunch of nutters. We have thought about this,” Scottish businessman Stevan Allen, 31, told Reuters at the send-off on the banks of the Thames River. “I could die, but I’d rather live a short life achieving something useful than a long one doing nothing to change the terrible state of the world.” (Agencies)
