Bush: Moment of truth for the world

LAJES, Azores Islands: US President George W Bush and allied leaders agreed on one final attempt to win world backing today for the swift disarmament of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

“Tomorrow is a moment of truth for the world,” Bush said at a Sunday summit with the leaders of Britain, Spain and Portugal in the Portuguese Azores archipelago. “Now we make a final appeal to make a strong, unified message on behalf of the international community,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair said. Bush urged other nations to support “the immediate and unconditional disarmament” of the Iraqi leader.

France, Germany and Russia have opposed an additional United Nations resolution to set an ultimatum for the Iraqi leader to disarm. And efforts to win the votes of uncommitted nations at the 15-country UN Security Council faltered in recent days. Bush, Blair, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and Portugal Prime Minister Jose Durao Barroso met at an American air base in the Azores, Portuguese territory in the Atlantic Ocean, as more than 250,000 troops gathered in the Persian Gulf area poised to strike. Aznar said the agreement among the leaders marked “a last chance, one last attempt to reach the greatest possible consensus among ourselves”. Bush sounded like he didn’t expect reluctant countries to change their minds.

France and Russia — both permanent Security Council members with veto power — along with Germany, are leading a campaign seeking to stop Bush’s push for military action against Iraq and urging for more time for UN weapons inspectors to do their job. Bush was scornful of France’s role in the diplomatic tug of war that has unfolded in recent months. Noting that he said 10 days ago he wanted the nations of the Security Council to show their cards, he said, “France showed their cards. After I said what I said, they said they were going to veto anything that held Saddam to account.”

French President Jacques Chirac said earlier yesterday he was willing to accept a 30-day deadline for Iraq to disarm, provided the move was endorsed by US weapons inspectors. Speaking hours before the Azores summit got under way, Chirac said the inspectors will be telling the Security Council next week that they believe it is possible to disarm Saddam Hussein peacefully. “One month, two months, I am ready to accept any accord on this point that has the approval of the inspectors,” Chirac said in an interview.

Blair noted that some nations oppose any ultimatum to Saddam. The result, he said, is that the Iraqi leader is playing a game that “he has played over the last 12 years. Disarmament never happens but instead the international community is drawn into some perpetual negotiation,” he said. “Now we have reached the point of decision,” he said. Barroso, the Portuguese premier, called the Azores summit “the last chance of a political solution. It may be a small chance but if there is only one chance in a million it’s worth trying this opportunity.”

The summit also had a more symbolic purpose: to show the three leaders — particularly Blair and Aznar, who need political cover at home for their much-criticised alliance with Bush — as willing to make perhaps a final diplomatic push to win international backing for war.