U.S. and British diplomats worked behind the scenes to line up support at the United Nations. At the White House on Saturday, the Bush administration prepared for imminent decisions about military action in Iraq by both international allies and the president.
President Bush, who usually spends weekends at Camp David, stayed at the White House where a few thousand anti-war protesters gathered off the back lawn.
The president spoke by phone with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan about his country's reconstruction. Bush was planning to put off until Monday more calls to foreign leaders to try to win support in the U.N. Security Council for a U.S.-British-Spanish proposal that paves the way for war, a White House official said.
The new resolution, due for a vote next week in New York, faces strong opposition from veto-wielding council members. Newly amended, the proposal would give Saddam until March 17 to totally disarm.
Secretary of State Colin Powell planned appearances on three separate Sunday news shows to continue the diplomatic and public relations effort. Aides said Bush could also dispatch his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to Russia to lobby President Vladimir Putin in person.
On Saturday, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage met in the West Wing's situation room with national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and White House chief of staff Andrew Card.
On his part, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he was confident of winning majority support for the resolution he presented to the council Friday. "We are at a difficult time, but I believe that by the process of argument we should be able to get to a point where we can get a second resolution," Straw told the BCC.
In the face of the U.S.-British efforts, France's foreign minister scheduled a visit to Africa to win swing votes and French President Jacques Chirac called for an emergency summit to find a compromise.
The United States rejected the summit idea, but Chirac was calling other leaders and seeking their support, his office said Saturday. Chirac had received a positive response, his office said, without elaborating or mentioning leaders he had consulted.
"War is not a small thing," the president's office said. "When you declare death or life, this merits being taken to the highest level of responsibility."
Both sides are fighting for the votes of the six other members — Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea, Mexico and Pakistan.
Therefore, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin's office said Saturday he would visit Angola, Cameroon and Guinea in the next few days to seek their support. Paris has claimed to have the support of the African nations.
Mexico and Chile are seen as leaning toward approving the resolution for fear of offending the United States, some diplomats said.
In Iraq, U.S. and British fighters over the southern zone struck for a second consecutive day Saturday against mobile surface-to-air missile guidance radar systems. The U.S. Central Command said both strikes used precision-guided weapons after "in response to Iraqi threats to coalition aircraft." (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
