M A I N   N E W S

USA hints at attacking Iraq without Britain
Tests ‘mother of all bombs’

A combination picture shows Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair gesticulating during questions at the House of Commons in London on Wednesday. Britain said on Wednesday Iraqi President Saddam Hussein must declare on television that he will give up hidden weapons of mass destruction as one of six conditions to avoid war. — Reuters photo

Washington, March 12
Hinting that the USA may attack Iraq without Britain as Premier Tony Blair is facing enormous opposition from his country’s anti-war forces, Washington has said the UK’s role in a military conflict is “unclear” at this juncture, but asserted that London would help in the reconstruction process in the post-war period.

“This is a matter that most of the senior officials in the government discuss with the UK on a daily or every-other-day basis,” Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told a Pentagon press conference yesterday.

“And I had a good visit with Minister of Defence of the UK about an hour ago. Their situation is distinctive to their country, and they have a government that deals with Parliament in their way, distinctive way. And what ultimately will be decided is unclear as to their role, that is to say their role in the event that a decision is made to use force,” he said.

He said “there is the second issue of their (UK’s) role in a post-Saddam reconstruction process or stabilisation process, which would be a different matter. And I think until we know what the resolution is, we won’t know the answer as to what their role will be and to the extent they are able to participate in the event in case the President decides to use force; that (British participation) would obviously be welcomed.”

Later, after reports that UK officials were surprised by his comments, Mr Rumsfeld said in a statement that the main point of his press conference was that “obtaining a second UN Security Council resolution is important to the UK.”

Mr Rumsfeld’s comments came after the Pentagon tested in Florida for the first time a new bomb, the most powerful non-atomic bomb in history — a 21,000-pound device which has been nicknamed ‘Mother of All Bombs’ while officially it is called Massive Ordnance Air Blast weapon or MOAB. PTI

USA threatens Russia over Iraq veto

Moscow, March 12
Russia will suffer serious economic and geopolitical consequences if it vetoes a UN resolution authorising war against Iraq, the US Ambassador to Moscow warned in a newspaper interview published today.

Alexander Vershbow told the Izvestia daily that Moscow could put at risk planned cooperation between the two countries in the energy sector that would include massive US investment in the Russian oil industry.

He also signalled that Russia’s strategic partnership with the USA forged since the September 11, 2001, attacks, as well as cooperation in anti-missile defence could be placed in doubt.

“We could significantly widen our cooperation in the energy field, increase US investment in the Russian energy sector, develop new forms of security cooperation and work together in anti-missile defence. We could increase cooperation in the fight against terrorism,” he said.

The envoy pointed out that the USA wanted to work more closely with Russia’s underfunded space programme since Washington grounded its shuttle fleet in the wake of the Columbia disaster.

Mr Vershbow added that the USA would not give Iraq more than a week to show it is disarming after a vote on the new UN resolution.

“If Iraqi President Saddam Hussein takes a strategic decision to disarm and demonstrates this in a very short timespan, it would be unreasonable to fix an ultimatum more than a week after the passage of a new resolution.”

Faced with implacable opposition from Russia and France, who have threatened to veto any resolution authorising military action against Iraq, the USA has said it might extend a deadline for Iraq to disarm or face war.

As the UN Security Council prepared for an open debate on Iraq and smaller countries on the council signalled they would refuse to back a US-British-Spanish motion calling for a March 17 deadline against Iraq, Washington indicated it could ease its stance.

President George W. Bush “thinks that there is a little room for a little more diplomacy, but not much time,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said on Tuesday.

A senior US official said Washington was preparing a compromise resolution for the UN Security Council, and Fleischer would not rule out that negotiations could lead to the inclusion of disarmament benchmarks for Iraq to follow if it was to avert war.

But he insisted that “the vote will take place this week” regardless of French and Russian veto threats. AFP

India denies deal with USA on Iraq

New Delhi, March 12
India today denied news reports suggesting that the USA has offered it a piece of Iraq pie in the event of President Saddam Hussein being ousted if New Delhi holds its counsel on a possible military strike.

“We deny that any such conversation has taken place between USA and India”, External Affairs Ministry spokesman said in response to a question on comments attributed to US Ambassador Robert Blackwill in this regard. PTI