US ready to lead ‘coalition of willing’ against Iraq

AMERICA has all the authority it needs for an attack on Iraq, with or without a second UN resolution, US President George Bush warned last night.

As Britain and the US continued to work on a new UN resolution that would back a war, Mr Bush said America was ready to lead a “coalition of the willing.”

“We don’t need a second resolution. It’s clear this guy couldn’t care less about the first resolution.

“He’s in total defiance with 1441. But we’re working with our friends and allies to see if we can get a second resolution,” Mr Bush said.

He declined to say whether the United States would support a deadline in that resolution giving Saddam a last chance to destroy his suspected weapons of mass destruction or face attack.

“Hopefully Saddam Hussein will disarm. If he chooses not to disarm ... we will lead a coalition of the willing to disarm him.”

However, in a defiant statement Iraq said the US was dreaming if it thought it could persuade the UN Security Council to pass a new resolution.

“There are a lot of illusions and dreams about issuing a new resolution,” Iraq’s Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said. “If they are lobbying for a new resolution to commit new aggression against Iraq, they are doomed to failure because the whole world is rejecting aggression.”

He said worldwide demonstrations attended by millions of people at the weekend were “an international referendum against aggression”.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he believed Britain and the US could get a new resolution authorising the use of force.

He acknowledged the concerns of the millions of demonstrators who took part in weekend marches, but said the protesters should realise that if the international community failed to act, the Iraqi people would have to pay the price.

“If we do have to take military action, we do so in the sure knowledge that we are removing one of the most barbarous and detestable regimes in modern political history,” he said.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said the way to avoid war was for Saddam Hussein to comply with UN resolutions.

In the Dáil, Mr Ahern said the Government and the 100,000 peace marchers who took to the streets of Dublin on Saturday effectively shared the same views on Iraq.

The marchers supported the view of every member of the Dáil that there should be no war, he said.

However, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said it was outrageous hypocrisy to suggest the people taking part in Saturday’s peace demonstration supported the Government position, when they were actually demonstrating against it.

No draft of the resolution is expected to emerge before today, with US and British officials waiting for the end of a public meeting of countries without seats on the 15-member Security Council.

That session, expected to turn into another forum against US war plans, began yesterday afternoon and was expected to spill over into today.