Enforcing Cease-Fire

Source : NBC News, 5th February 1998

The United States has consistently said that the terms of the Gulf war cease-fire give it all the authority it needs to use military power to enforce the cease-fire provisions. Iraq has been in breach of those terms since it declared dozens of sites "off-limits" to United Nations weapons inspectors empowered to search for and destroy any weapons of mass destruction. Still, the dissent from former Gulf war allies was in stark contrast to the picture being presented in Washington, where British Prime Minister Tony Blair held talks with Clinton and lent his country's full support for American leadership.

Interviewed on NBC's "Today" show, Blair told co-host Matt Lauer that "the threat to world peace will be all the greater" if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is "allowed to get away" with flouting U.N. resolutions following the Gulf war that require weapons inspections. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, too, tried to minimize opposition, insisting the United States was
still giving diplomacy a chance to succeed. Asked about the "world war" comments, Clinton said, "I doubt that that would happen," and emphasized that he and Yeltsin would both rather avoid military action if possible. With Blair at his side, Clinton said that both Russia and France, which Thursday ruled out any assistance in a U.S. strike, "share many of our frustrations" with Iraq's actions. The United States is "trying to build what consensus we can," he added, but Iraq's potential for biological warfare is a real threat that must be contained.

That may prove to be an impossible goal, however. Intelligence officials tell NBC News that they don't know precisely where Saddam hides his biological weapons. In fact, even during the Gulf war, the United States never knew the locations of the plants that produced these weapons.

The situation could be more pressing than has been believed. NBC News reports that the United States has learned only now that Iraq already has loaded bombs and warheads with deadly toxins and moved them to secret air bases in the desert. From there they can menace U.S. forces, Israel and Saudi Arabia.