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Arab
League chief Amr Mussa said Tuesday a US-led war could be
launched against Iraq "in a few days", adding that Arab states were
powerless to prevent it, Sapa/AFP report.
"The situation is not reassuring ... a war could happen in a few
days," Mussa told an Arab youth ministers' meeting here.
"Arab diplomacy will try till the last moment to avoid it -- it is
deploying secret and public efforts ... but the Arab nation is
going through an extreme state of weakness hindering its capacity
to confront the danger."
The Arab world has been deeply split by US-led war threats against
Iraq with heads of state unable even to agree on when and where
they should meet to try to thrash out a common line.
Plans for a summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm
el-Sheikh this Saturday have run into opposition from Iraq itself,
whose insistence it is too busy with the UN disarmament process to
participate has been backed by Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
An Arab foreign ministers' meeting here on February 16 ended in
acrimony, after Kuwait and Qatar accused the gathering's chairman
Lebanon of steamrollering through a statement critical of Arab
states hosting US forces.
Meanwhile, Sapa-dpa reports that British Prime Minister Tony Blair
threw down an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein Tuesday, demanding "100
per cent compliance" with UN Resolution 1441 on disarmament.
"Now is the time for him to decide passive rather than active
cooperation will not do," Blair told the British parliament, making
a crucial statement in an attempt to convince MPs and the general
public that his hardline stance in support of the United States is
the right course.
"1441 called for 100 per cent compliance - anything less will not
do," he said, pointing out that Saddam had evaded UN resolutions
for 12 years.
"To those who say we are rushing to war I say this: We are 12 years
since Saddam said he would disarm," Blair said.
"Even now today we are offering Saddam the possibility of voluntary
disarmament through the UN ... Even now we are prepared to go the
extra step to achieve disarmament peacefully.
"I do not want war," Blair added.
Many members of his own Labour Party are sceptical of the need for
war in Iraq. They will vote on the issue Wednesday after a
debate.
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