Steve Quayle News Alerts

September 11, 2002

George W. Bush will on Thursday seek to shame the international community into action, when he tells the United Nations general assembly that it is being defied by Saddam Hussein's "outlaw regime".

Emphasising the perceived threat posed by Iraq, Mr Bush is expected to deliver what would be seen as an ultimatum, telling the general assembly that the UN's credibility is at stake.

As the White House seeks to shed the image of a go-it-alone US administration, Mr Bush will meet more than a dozen international leaders on Thursday and Friday to address a range of global issues.

The president is expected to deliver "a call to action against Iraq". He will condemn Mr Hussein's "decade of defiance", stressing the Iraqi leader's repression of his own people, support of terrorist activities and development of weapons of mass destruction.

Responding to questions on Thursday on the president's view of the UN, Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary, said: "The president would hope that it would never be the case that the UN had failed the world."

There were growing indications in London and Washington on Tuesday that a fresh UN resolution setting a deadline for Mr Hussein to admit weapons inspectors to Iraq would be drafted by UK diplomats and proposed by the US.

British officials said a final decision on which country would propose the resolution had not yet been made. But they indicated that the UK was expecting to see the security council approve a UN resolution "within days or a week or so".

Tony Blair, UK prime minister, who has emerged as the US's closest ally in its attempt to oust Mr Hussein, on Tuesday said he and the US president would give Baghdad one last chance to let UN weapons inspectors into the country. It was "right to deal with Saddam through the United Nations" because it was the will of the UN that the Iraqi dictator was flouting, Mr Blair said.

The Bush team has been greatly encouraged by signals from France that it is willing to tackle the perceived threat in Iraq on condition that action is mandated by the UN. Richard Armitage, the US deputy secretary of state, said president Jacques Chirac's comments in favour of a two stage approach to Iraq, the first involving the UN, represented a "dramatic change" in French thinking.

Another senior administration official welcomed the French president's comments, saying that the US was "gaining some momentum".

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