WASHINGTON — President Bush called on the United Nations to “face up to our global responsibilities” and force Iraq to disarm, even as he met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday to discuss the fallout Israel could face from a U.S.-led war against Baghdad.
The United Nations, meanwhile, began a contentious two-day debate over an Iraq resolution, and at the White House, the president signed a congressional resolution formally authorizing the use of U.S. military force against the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Neither Bush nor Sharon would say after their meeting whether Bush had asked Israel to hold its fire should Iraq attack the Jewish state in retaliation for the U.S. invasion and, if so, whether Sharon had agreed. But Bush said Sharon would be free to respond if “Iraq attacked Israel tomorrow.”
The two leaders also did not say whether Bush promised to target Iraqi missile sites that could threaten Israel.
“Our hope is that the Iraqi regime will disarm peacefully,” Bush said.
As the U.N. debate opened, Bush called on its members to force Hussein to dismantle his chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.
“The time has arrived once again for the United Nations to live up to the purposes of its founding to protect our common security,” Bush said. “Every nation that shares in the benefits of peace also shares in the duty of defending the peace.”
As U.S. diplomats continue to negotiate with members of the U.N. Security Council over the form and language of an Iraq resolution, Bush said he expected the world body to significantly toughen its stance against Hussein. For 11 years — 4,199 days by Bush’s count — Hussein has defied U.N. resolutions demanding that he disarm.
“For Iraq, the old weapons inspection process was little more than a game, in which cheating was never punished,” Bush said. “And that game is over.”
Bush said the United States wants a U.N. resolution requiring Hussein to account for all elements of his weapons programs and to allow U.N. weapons inspectors “access to any site in Iraq, at any time, without pre-clearance, without delay, without exceptions.” Witnesses to Hussein’s weapons activities should be allowed to leave the country, along with their families, so they can be debriefed by U.S. officials, Bush said.
Bush began his day by signing a congressional resolution formally authorizing him to use the U.S. military against Iraq. Despite that authority, Bush said, military action should not be considered inevitable.
“Yet confronting the threat posed by Iraq is necessary, by whatever means that requires,” he said. “Either the Iraqi regime will give up its weapons of mass destruction, or, for the sake of peace, the United States will lead a global coalition to disarm that regime.”
“If any doubt our nation’s resolve, our determination,” Bush said, “they would be unwise to test it.”