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Bush gives
Saddam ultimatum to leave within 48 hours
US
President George W. Bush Monday gave Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein an ultimatum to leave
his country within 48 hours to avoid a war.
Bush was
speaking during a prime-time televised address
to the nation several hours after the United
States, Britain and Spain withdrew the draft
resolution on Iraq, which seeks UN
authorization of use of force against Iraq.
He also asked
UN inspectors and journalists to leave Iraq
immediately.
Bush said his
administration is determined to remove the
threat posed by Saddam, who he said owns
weapons of mass destruction.
He said
Washington has to act as the UN Security
Council has failed to live up to its
responsibilities.
In his address,
Bush also warned of terrorist operations
facing the US troops.
Following
Bush's speech, the US government raised the
national terror alert to Orange, the
second-highest level in a five-color
assessment system, from yellow, the middle
level, on Monday.
Iraq rejects
US ultimatum for Saddam to leave
Iraq
this morning bluntly rejected a US ultimatum
for President Saddam Hussein to leave his
country to avert a US-led war, the Qatar-based
Al Jazeera TV network reported.
"The only
option (to avoid war) is the departure of the
number one warmonger in the world," Iraqi
Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said, apparently
referring to US President George W. Bush.
Sabri's
statement was echoed by Iraqi Information
Minister Mohamed Sa'eed Alsahaf, who vowed
that Saddam will stay in the country despite
the US threat of war.
"Bush will
leave, the infidel (British Prime Minister
Tony) Blair will leave, but President Saddam
will stand as a towering mountain," he
told the Al-Jazeera TV in an interview.
The United
States, Britain and Spain on Monday abandoned
their bid to table a draft resolution to the
UN Security Council on authorizing the use of
force to disarm Iraq. This was due to the
strong opposition that the three nations faced
within the UN Security Council, especially the
threat of veto by France.
With the window
for diplomacy closed, a war seemed to be
inevitable at this moment as about 300,000
US-British forces deployed in the Gulf region
are poised to roll into Iraq pending the order
of President Bush.
British
resigned minister voices opposition to Iraq
war
Robin
Cook, a British cabinet minister who resigned
earlier in the day, said late Monday that he
could not support a war without UN backing.
Cook, former
Leader of the House of Commons, told lawmakers
that the reason he resigned from the
government was that he could not back a march
toward a war with Iraq that did not have
international and domestic support.
In a statement
to the MPs in the lower house of parliament,
Cook also warned that international alliances
of all kinds were under threat now that the
diplomatic route had been abandoned.
Iraq's military
strength was less than half what it had been
at the time of the last Gulf War, Cook said,
adding that it was illogical to argue,
therefore, that Iraq presented a threat and
that threat justified war. Iraq probably had
no weapons of mass destruction in the
"commonly understood" sense of being
a credible threat that could be delivered on
"a city target," he added.
Cook also said
he would vote against the government's stance
on Iraq on Tuesday.
British Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw announced late Sunday
that a parliamentary vote on military action
against Iraq was expected to be held at 10
p.m. (22:00 GMT) Tuesday.
Cook handed in
his resignation Monday afternoon, minutes
before British Prime Minister Tony Blair's
emergency cabinet meeting on Iraq. His
resignation came shortly after Britain's
Ambassador to the United Nations Jeremy
Greenstock announced that diplomatic routes to
resolve the Iraq crisis had been closed.
Local analysts
said Cook's resignation might inflame anti-war
Labor lawmakers into a massive show of dissent
during a parliamentary vote on war in Iraq set
for Tuesday.
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A
renovation of the fleet of taxis that for 25 years that has not been done, an
general increase in the tariffs and the commitment to fight against pirate taxis,
are some of the points that government and taxi drivers agreed to this Monday.
