News 9 March 2003
Summary of Events up to NOW
March has already begun and with a US led attack on Iraq seems closer and closer. Iraq has been destroying its Samoud-2 missiles which supposedly have a range bigger than the 114 km limit allowed for Iraq by the UN. The US has also accused Iraq of still having weapons of mass destruction such as biological and chemical weapons and that it is hiding them. A deadline has been set for March 17 for their destruction. Which means that we might be getting really close to war, since Iraq keeps denying that it has them and the US keeps insisting they do. There is no definite proof either way. However the US and its allies like Britain have already deployed close to a quarter of a million troops in the Gulf region ready to strike at any moment. What complicated things was the very close vote in the Turkish parliament not to allow US ground troops to attack Iraq from Turkey. The US air base in Incirlik in southern Turkey will still be a major launch point for US warplanes. It is likely also that the Parliament will reconsider and US ground troops will be allowed into Turkey. Turkey of course would want to participate in such an operation and would bring a large number of its own troops into northern Iraq, officially to stem the flow of refugees towards Turkey, but also to control the Kurds and prevent them from having their own state.
Other things that happened before this date and have led up to what is happening now are the different UN resolutions and discussions. Especially France, supported by Russia, has been strongly opposed to any war on Iraq. It wants to solve the crisis diplomatically. Connected to this was the vote in NATO where France, Germany and Belgium opposed the sending in of NATO assets into Turkey. They explained their act by saying that by sending in NATO missiles and other things would make war inevitable and they don't want war. This was probably the first time ever that any nations in NATO have opposed the US on any major issue. (except for France) Turkey immediately invoked Article 4 of the NATO Charter calling on immediate consultations between members. The crisis was solved by putting the issue into the Military Planning Committee of which France is not a member (having withdrawn in the 1960s) and the other two immediately caved in.
UN inspections in Iraq continue and haven't found anything spectacular. Several nations, especially Gulf countries, have called on Saddam to step down, which he refused to do.
A thing which has caused quite a stir was US Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation to the UN showing evidence that Iraq is indeed evil and should be bombed. This has convinced some, but many people still remain sceptical, saying a lot of the things could have been fabricated or are only based on scant evidence.
Massive protests have been staged accross the world against the war on Iraq. |
