U.S. Seeks Iraq Compromise
President Bush met with U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix Wednesday as U.S. diplomats struggled to give the inspections team power to "carry out the will of the world community" and disarm President Saddam Hussein.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, meanwhile, signaled a willingness to strike a compromise to get U.N. Security Council approval of a tough resolution on Iraq Wednesday.
The meeting with Blix was arranged so President Bush could show he wants the U.N. to give its weapons inspectors the power to do their job, reports CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller. In the U.S. view, that means enactment of a tough resolution that promises consequences if Saddam Hussein remains defiant.
"The message is it's important for the inspections to be effective, and it's important for the inspectors to carry out the will of the world community as expressed through the Security Council to inspect for the purpose of disarmament," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said.
He noted that it is the job of the Security Council, not Blix, to give inspectors the power to examine and disarm Saddam's arsenal.
In a separate matter, Fleischer was asked whether Saddam would be charged with crimes against humanity if the Iraqi government is toppled.
"These are decisions that get made by the international community, but certainly the atrocities that have been committed are serious, and I don't think the world is interested in looking the other way," he told reporters.
Powell said Tuesday "there may be a way" to bridge remaining differences with France, Russia and China on the draft proposed by the United States and Britain.
However, he said the resolution must warn Iraq of consequences if it refuses to agree to destroy its weapons arsenals.
"Otherwise," Powell said at a news conference, "Iraq will try to deceive and distract" the U.N. weapons inspectors who would go back to Iraq after four years to search for chemical and biological weapons and a nuclear weapons program.
"We cannot accept any language that suggests that, in the presence of new Iraqi violations, those violations would be ignored and there would be no consequences," he said.
Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency were invited by the White House to discuss implementation of the U.S. draft resolution, U.N. officials said.
They have underscored a need a tougher weapons inspections rule, and the Bush administration has used their advice to push the U.S. demand for a tough resolution.
The arms inspectors met also with Vice President Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, who attended all three meetings.
The struggle to win over critics of a tough resolution continued at the United Nations, where France, China and Russia oppose authorizing military action against Iraq before inspectors find out whether Iraq would cooperate with them.
In Beijing, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry said the Security Council should decide how to deal with Iraq only after new inspections.
"In our view, the most important thing to solve the Iraqi issue is to allow as quickly as possible the return of the U.N. inspectors," spokesman Liu Jianchao said.
Three administration officials told The Associated Press there could be changes at the margins of the proposed resolution to satisfy such Security Council holdouts as France and Russia.
Specifically, one official said on condition of anonymity, the United States was prepared to give Iraq more than the 30 days the resolution permits for Iraq to list chemical programs unrelated to weapons.
Also, taking a cue from Blix, the administration is easing its demand that Iraqi scientists who worked on weapons programs be interviewed outside the country. The revision would approve such interviews but not insist on them, a U.S. official said.
Powell, even while hinting at compromise, said "our basic principles remain the same."
"Clear indictment of Saddam Hussein's past behavior and current behavior has to be in the resolution," he said, and "there has to be a very tough inspection regime."
Powell also warned again that if the Security Council does not act Mr. Bush "has what he believes is the authority needed and, frankly, the obligation to act with like-minded nations to disarm Iraq."
A White House official said the Bush administration was using its threat to act alone against Iraq as a strategy to compel Russia and France to back the joint U.S.-British resolution.