A rchive Date
[ 31-12-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/world/1719133
U.S. orders more troops to Persian Gulf
Associated Press
Dec. 30, 2002, 8:10AM
BAGHDAD - The United States ordered more troops, aircraft and ships to the Persian Gulf for a possible war against Iraq in the new year, pushing world oil prices today to two-year highs.
U.N. weapons inspectors, armed with new U.S. intelligence, scrutinized more suspect sites in Iraq, including a water treatment facility south of Baghdad and a communications centre near the Iranian border.
The U.N. experts, absent from Iraq for four years, have been working flat out since they resumed inspections on Nov, 27 to check Baghdad's assertion that it has no banned weapons.
U.S. officials said Saudi Arabia, Iraq's neighbour, had agreed to let Washington use its air bases and an operations centre in any war, but Saudia Arabia questioned this today.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered thousands of troops, dozens of strike aircraft and probably two more aircraft carrier battle groups to the Gulf, starting early next month.
The deployment would at least double the 50,000 U.S. military personnel already near Iraq.
But U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said President George W. Bush, facing the distraction of a separate standoff over North Korea's nuclear intentions, had taken no decision on whether to launch an attack on Iraq.
"He hopes for a peaceful solution but at the same time we are taking prudent action, positioning our forces so that they will be ready to do whatever might be required," Powell said.
Powell spoke as U.S. and British warplanes once again attacked Iraqi radar sites in a southern "no-fly" zone.
He discouraged talk of crisis or conflict with North Korea, saying Washington was ready to give diplomacy a chance.
Oil prices charged higher today as traders bet on a possible military strike on Iraq early next year and Venezuelan oil supplies remained choked by a 29-day strike.
London's Brent crude opened up 44 cents at $30.60 a barrel, while February U.S. light crude futures jumped to $33.17 a barrel, marking a 45-cent gain from Friday's close and the highest since December 1, 2000.
Gold traded around $350 an ounce, near a six-year high on growing fears of war and a floundering U.S. dollar.
Some 110 inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission are now in Iraq.
Powell said Washington, which has described Iraq, North Korea and Iran as members of an "axis of evil," was providing intelligence to the inspectors and expected to see results soon.
But the 200 searches inspectors have so far carried out have apparently uncovered no trace of the chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programmes Washington insists Iraq is pursuing.
Iraqi officials said an UNMOVIC chemical team visited a heavily guarded facility which produces metal moulds and tools in a Baghdad suburb, which previous inspectors listed as producing modified Scud missiles.
Missile experts and biological teams scoured a health laboratory in central Baghdad and a site in the Abu Ghreib area, while a communications group headed towards Mundharieh, 110 miles northeast of Baghdad, near the Iranian border.
The Iraqi officials said a team of UNMOVIC and IAEA experts inspected a water treatment facility on the Euphrates river, some 9 miles south of Baghdad.
The U.N. Security Council ordered Iraq in November to give a full account of any banned weapons programmes or face serious consequences -- diplomatic language for possible war. Iraq says it has no such weapons and no plans to produce them.
Last week, inspectors began interviewing Iraqi scientists who could shed light on any previous or current programmes.
U.S. defense officials said Saudi Arabia had agreed to let the United States use its air bases and an important operations centre at Prince Sultan air base outside Riyadh.
But Saudi Arabia questioned today a report in the New York Times that it had agreed to allow the United States to use its air bases in a possible war with Iraq.
"Even if the Security Council issues a unanimous decision to attack Iraq, we hope a chance will be given to the Arab states to find a political solution for this issue," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told reporters during a visit to Sudan.
But the prince appeared to stop short of denying the Times report that U.S. commanders said they had private assurances they could use Saudi air bases and a sophisticated command centre in the kingdom.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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