The Sunday mini-summit meeting in the military airbase on Azores Islands ended after some 90 minutes, with US President George W. Bush issuing an ultimatum on Iraq as war is almost imminent.
President Bush told reporters at the press conference at end of the meeting: "Tomorrow will be a moment of truth for the world" over the Iraq issue. Monday would be the last day to determine whether international diplomacy could work.
President Bush, together with his British, Spanish and Portuguese counterparts, stressed once again their demand for Iraq's immediate and unconditional disarmament.
"The Iraqi regime will disarm itself or the Iraqi regime will be disarmed by force -- and the regime has not disarmed itself," he said at the press conference.
To echo President Bush's demands, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that more discussion is just more delay, adding that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had been a grave threat to the peace of international community and "a cruel oppressor of the Iraqi people".
At the press conference, the US president did not specify whether there would be a vote on the proposed new UN resolution, only emphasizing that he hoped the world body would have a role to play in a post-Saddam Iraq.
The joint statement issued at the end of the emergency summit, however, was drafted with a much softer tone, also said that any (foreign) military presence in Iraq, if need be, would be temporary and would be designed to ensure the safety of the Iraqi people and the destruction of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
It has been widely believed that the summit meeting is putting pressure on French President Jacques Chirac to withdraw his threat to veto any resolution authorizing US-led unilateral military attack on Iraq.
The joint statement clearly stated that Iraq's territorial integrity, in the event of war, would be protected and the country's natural resources would be used for the benefit of the Iraqi people by distributing them more properly among the Iraqi people.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, another major key ally of President Bush on the Iraqi issue, said that they were willing to make one last effort for peace. If Saddam Hussein wanted to prevent a war, he should do it now by disarming.
The emergency meeting, convened at the suggestion of Washington, was the latest effort by the pro-war coalition to coordinate their stance on Iraq. Some leaders of these allies, especially Tony Blair and Jose Maria Aznar, are facing entrenched public opposition at home.
Reports said that the increasing pressure Tony Blair is now facing is likely to shake his current rule and may destroy his political future. Some politicians from his Labor Party threatened to resign if Blair insisted on going to war with the United states without the UN backing.
Just hours before this summit, Chirac said he was willing to accept a month's deadline for the weapons inspectors to finish their work. "I am fully prepared to accept whatever practical working terms the inspectors will propose," he said in an interview with American television.
But his suggestions were rejected by US Vice-President Dick Cheney who said that further delay would help nobody but Saddam Hussein.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said that he could see no point in a new meeting of the UN Security Council and warned journalists and other people to consider leaving Baghdad.
All these signs point to the fact that the war against Iraq is around the corner. On Sunday, the Iraqi authorities invited the chief weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei to Baghdad for urgent talks.
The 250,000-strong US troops deployed to the Gulf region as well as the British soldiers said that they are ready for any military assault. There are even reports saying that US intelligence agents have already drawn up a list of war criminals including Iraqi leader and his two sons.
With the summit meeting coming to an end, more attention would be focused on what will happen at the UN Security Council on Monday. Though the summit leaders did not say that war would start after Monday, everybody here sensed that the war is coming and is imminent. The summit meeting would be nothing but an ultimatum on Iraq at this crucial stage.
Pro-war Summit Issues Joint Statement on Iraq
The emergency summit meeting by leaders from the United States, Britain, Spain and Portugal issued a joint statement on Azores Islands Sunday evening, demanding immediate and unconditional Iraqi disarmament.
The joint statement said that Iraq must disarm and that in the event of war, any military presence in the country would be temporary and for destruction of weapons of mass destruction.
The statement accused the Iraqi regime of oppressing its people and said that any war in the future would be aimed at distributing wealth more proportionately among Iraqi people.
It also called on countries, especially, the "swing countries" on the UN Security Council, to support the war on Iraq because it would surely be for the benefit for the country. It was widely taken as part of efforts to coordinate their stance on Iraq and demand France to withdraw its intention of vetoing any second UN resolution.
(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2003)
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