BAGHDAD, 19 March 2003 — A defiant Iraq yesterday rejected a US ultimatum giving President Saddam Hussein 48 hours to go into exile or face war, but Washington warned bluntly it would invade no matter what.
Military preparations gathered pace with nearly 300,000 US and British troops poised in the Gulf while UN arms inspectors and diplomats fled ahead of an imminent military showdown that has fractured the international community.
“This battle will be Iraq’s last battle against the tyrannous villains and the last battle of aggression undertaken by America against the Arabs,” Saddam declared, rejecting the US deadline as “despicable.”
US President George W. Bush issued the 48-hour ultimatum after the collapse in acrimony of diplomatic efforts at the UN Security Council to rid Baghdad of its alleged arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.
And the White House said US-led troops would enter Iraq to hunt for the weapons even if Saddam goes into exile with his two sons Uday and Qusay after almost three decades of iron-fisted rule.
“If Saddam were to leave, American forces, coalition forces, would still enter Iraq,” said spokesman Ari Fleischer.
Anti-war governments were still locked in last-ditch attempts to avert war before the 0100 GMT tomorrow’s deadline, complaining that Bush had not exhausted all diplomatic avenues to resolve the crisis peacefully.
But US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington boasted the support of a broad coalition of 45 nations. Key NATO ally Turkey is set to vote in the next two days whether to give logistical support.
Bush’s closest ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair brushed aside the protest resignations of three ministers to seek parliamentary backing for war, saying the outcome of the Iraq crisis would “determine the pattern of international politics for the next generation.”
As the clock ticked down, Americans and Britons were told to brace for possible terrorist attacks by Al-Qaeda or Iraqi agents, governments across Europe stepped up security particularly around US sites, and several airlines cut Middle East routes, while anti-war protests flared in several European cities and towns.
“Any aggression against Iraq will make them (the Americans) regret their tragic fate and the wives and mothers of the Americans who fight us will cry tears of blood,” Saddam’s elder son Uday warned in Baghdad. “They should not think themselves safe anywhere in Iraq or abroad.”
UN weapons inspectors and other staff were evacuated to Cyprus yesterday, as diplomats and other foreign nationals also fled the region, including the French and Greek representatives in Baghdad.
The top UN refugee official Ruud Lubbers warned of the humanitarian consequences of war as his office was working on contingency plans to cope with a possible flight of 600,000 Iraq refugees.
“Let us not forget for a moment the suffering that comes with war — the fear, the destruction, the loss of innocent lives, the desperation of refugees fleeing their homes.” Thousands of Iraqis, some of them children, marched through Baghdad waving assault rifles in the air and vowing a “holy struggle” to defend Saddam.
“Fight, fight Saddam, we will die for you!” cried the crowd, waving Iraqi flags and portraits of Saddam.
Thousands of US Marines set off in tanks, armored vehicles and trucks across the Kuwaiti desert to take up battle positions, and Lieutenant General William Wallace, commander of the army’s Fifth Corps in Kuwait, predicted the American-led forces would roll over the Iraqis in “days, maybe weeks.”
On world financial markets, where investors expect the war to be over quickly, stocks and the dollar were chased higher while oil prices plummeted.
Despite the imminent strikes, the Security Council was to meet today to study the work of the inspectors, although foreign ministers from Britain and the United States are boycotting the meeting.
In a last-gasp move to avoid conflict, Chinese President Hu Jintao spoke by phone with Bush as well as with French President Jacques Chirac and Russian President Vladimir Putin. “The door to peace cannot be closed,” he said.
Bush issued his warning just hours after Washington abandoned efforts to win UN backing for military action, apparently unable to rally the nine Security Council votes needed for a new resolution.
“The tyrant will soon be gone,” Bush declared late Monday. “Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict commenced at a time of our choosing.”
But the Vatican scolded Bush for assuming a “grave responsibility before God” in deciding that diplomacy had been exhausted.
The Turkish Parliament was to vote today or tomorrow on whether to provide logistical support to the United States, after its earlier rejection of a US request to deploy 62,000 soldiers.
Meanwhile, sticking to a timetable superseded by moves to war, Security Council members yesterday studied a report by chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix asking them to approve 12 key disarmament tasks for Iraq.
The report contained the proposed work program of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC).
Blix was expected to present it formally today at a meeting attended by the foreign ministers of at least seven of the 15 council members including three leading critics of US preparations to disarm Iraq by force.
Council Resolution 1284, which set up UNMOVIC three years ago, required Blix to submit the program within 60 days of starting work in Iraq.
An advance team arrived on Nov. 27 but spent two months mostly setting up new equipment, and Blix took Jan. 27 as his formal starting date.
France and Germany asked him to submit his work program a few days early, in the hope of bolstering their case for disarming Iraq through inspections.
The report, made available to AFP, comprised a 10-page summary, a 12-page annex setting out what is required of Iraq to complete each of the tasks and 55 pages of background information.
The tasks covered the three areas under UNMOVIC scrutiny: Missiles, chemical and biological weapons.
Four apply to Iraq’s missiles and warheads and one to spray devices and drones; three to chemical weapons, including VX, Sarin and mustard agent; three to biological agents such as anthrax, botulinum toxin and smallpox.
The twelfth task is to declare “any proscribed activities post-1998” including underground or mobile weapons facilities.
