President Bush made it clear yesterday that Saddam Hussein can’t avoid war by destroying his illegal long-range missiles – as just ordered by U.N. inspectors – because those missiles are only “the tip of the iceberg.”
Bush, at a news conference with Spain President Jose Maria Aznar, also said he’s “confident” the U.N. Security Council will pass a new get-tough resolution on Saddam but added that this is the council’s “last chance” to prove it’s relevant.
Bush and Aznar spoke the day after chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix put Saddam on the spot by ordering Iraq to start destroying as many as 100 Al Samoud 2 missiles by Saturday. Iraq has dodged the question of whether it will comply.
“My question is, why don’t they destroy every weapon, illegal weapon. Saddam Hussein wants time . . . He’ll play like he’s going to disarm. He has no intention of disarming – otherwise he would have done so,” Bush scoffed.
“And so the idea of destroying a rocket or two rockets or however many he’s going to destroy says to me that he’s got a lot more weapons to destroy – and why hasn’t he destroyed them yet?” added Bush, standing by Aznar at his ranch in Texas.
Blix’s order to destroy Al Samoud 2 missiles is a catch-22 for Saddam because he’d want to use them in any war, but a refusal to destroy them would help Bush make the case to the world that Iraq is defying orders to disarm.
Bush’s warning that those missiles are only “the tip of the iceberg” further hikes the pressure on Iraq and could decrease the likelihood that Saddam will agree to destroy the missiles, which Blix has flatly stated are illegal.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld this week said there are now enough troops in the Persian Gulf to wage war.
Bush said the new U.N. resolution will state in “clear and simple terms that Iraq is not complying with Resolution 1441.”