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Powell: No U.S. war plan for Iraq's neighbors
« on: Apr 15th, 2003, 4:05pm » |
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Powell: No U.S. war plan for Iraq's neighbors
Iraqi leaders hold first meeting on nation's future
Tuesday, April 15, 2003 Posted: 3:54 PM EDT (1954 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday that the United States has concerns about two of Iraq's neighbors -- Syria and Iran -- but that "there is no war plan" to attack other countries.
Powell's remarks came as Iraqi religious and political leaders met Tuesday for the first time to chart the future of their country after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Diplomatic sparring continued Tuesday between Syrian, U.S. and British officials. The White House has accused the Middle East nation of producing chemical weapons, harboring senior members of Saddam's regime and supporting terrorism.
Syrian officials have vehemently denied the allegations.
"It's not about whether the accusations are true or not," said Imad Moustapha, Syria's deputy ambassador to the United States.
"What they want to do is ... keep on repeating them day in, day out, every day, every day, and some people will eventually end up believing them."
Powell acknowledged the Bush administration had "concerns" with Syria as well as Iran. But he said there were no plans for another war.
"There is no list" of U.S. enemies in line for military action, Powell said. "There is no war plan right now to go attack someone else -- either for the purpose of overthrowing their leadership or for the purpose of imposing democratic values."
British Foreign Jack Straw on Tuesday also said Syria has "important questions" to answer.
"Iraq was a unique case," Powell told reporters at the Foreign Press Center in Washington. "It wasn't just a matter of a dictator being there; it was a dictator terrorizing his people ... [and] beyond that, invading his neighbors, threatening the whole world with weapons of mass destruction and supporting terrorist activities."
The focus of military activity in Iraq has begun to shift to locating senior members of Saddam's regime, searching key facilities and restoring order to the war-torn nation.
"Our victory in Iraq is certain, but it is not complete," President Bush said during a White House event Tuesday. "Centralized power of the dictator has ended. Yet in parts of Iraq, desperate and dangerous elements remain."
In the ancient southern Iraqi city of Ur, Iraqi opposition leaders and U.S. officials held the first of several meetings to chart the country's future.
Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite leaders gathered in an airfield near a 4,000-year-old ziggurat, or observatory.
In what a U.S. official called the "first vote of the free Iraq," delegates decided to meet again in 10 days to discuss concrete proposals for building a post-Saddam government.
According to a 13-point statement released later by U.S. Central Command, delegates agreed to work toward a democratic, federal system "not based on communal identity" that will be "built on respect for diversity, including respect for the role of women."
The conference, however, was not without controversy.
Before the session, Shiite protesters in nearby Nasiriya vented their anger over possibly not having a voice in the debate. And several leading anti-Saddam groups, including the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, boycotted the gathering.
The Bush administration did not divulge the names of invitees, but Powell called the conference a "fairly large gathering of individuals" who represent "the views of those who have been struggling outside as well as those who are now free inside" Iraq.
Meanwhile, U.S. military sources Tuesday stepped back from claims made a day earlier that coalition troops had found 11 mobile chemical and biological laboratories buried south of Baghdad.
The 11 cargo containers were filled with new laboratory equipment apparently intended to make conventional weapons, said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Monte Gonzalez, the head of the team brought in to examine them.
Other developments
Bush spoke by telephone Tuesday with French President Jacques Chirac, the first conversation between the two leaders since the beginning of the war in Iraq. France adamantly opposed the military action. During the call, which Chirac initiated, the French president told Bush that he wanted to play a "pragmatic role in reconstruction events in Iraq," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
About 30 Iraqi and world experts will meet at the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's headquarters in Paris, France, to evaluate the extent of looting in Iraqi museums and how to preserve Iraq's cultural heritage. U.S. Central Command acknowledged a "void in security," saying the U.S. military failed to anticipate "the riches of Iraq would be looted by the Iraqi people."
Doctors and nurses have begun returning to Baghdad hospitals not damaged by looters, an official with the International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday. Health-care workers could not get to hospitals during fighting in the Iraqi capital, and some facilities remain without electricity, running water and supplies.
An Iraqi on the CIA payroll used a hidden video camera to tape a Nasiriya hospital, information that helped U.S. forces rescue wounded Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch on April 1, sources told CNN. The hospital also served as an Iraqi military post.
U.S. special forces found 80 SA-2 or SA-3 surface-to-air missiles hidden in a ravine in Iraq, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said at Tuesday's Central Command briefing. The U.S. Army V Corps also found a weapons cache with 91 cases of TNT and plastic explosives, six homemade bombs and 23 cases of rocket-propelled grenades as well as 10 smaller caches of ammunition and weapons.
Coalition forces will continue "direct-action" missions to search key facilities and locate senior members of Saddam's regime, Brooks said, adding that rewards will be offered for information leading to these officials' capture. Troops are also on the lookout for people looking to launch suicide attacks.
After a night of coalition airstrikes and tank fire, a massive column of U.S. Army V Corps armored vehicles and troops, including the 4th Infantry Division, rolled into the Iraqi capital Tuesday. The Army units will take over from the Marines the duty of guarding Baghdad.
U.S. Marines on Tuesday looked for "unauthorized weapons" and people "not friendly to the United States" in a search at a Baghdad hotel that is a home base for about 2,000 international journalists, military sources told CNN.
The FBI has arrested the son of a former Iraqi diplomat on espionage charges. Raed Rokan Al-Anbuke, the son of the former deputy permanent representative to the Iraqi Mission for the United Nations, is charged with acting "as an agent of the Iraqi Intelligence Service," a statement from the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York said.
Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal told reporters at a Pentagon briefing Monday that "major combat engagements" have ended in Iraq, with U.S. forces having moved into a phase of "smaller, albeit sharper fights."
CNN Correspondents Christiane Amanpour, Jim Clancy, Michael Holmes, Tom Mintier, Nic Robertson and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.
EDITOR'S NOTE: CNN's policy is to not report information that puts operational security at risk.
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