Bush urges U.N. to get tough
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As the United Nations' chief weapons inspectors began Saturday what could be their final meetings with Iraqi officials, President Bush urged the Security Council to hold its ground in demanding Iraq to disarm.
Secretary of State Colin Powell made the case to the U.N. Security Council this week that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is deceiving the body by failing to account for his nation's weapons of mass destruction, Bush said in his weekly radio address.
"The regime has never accounted for a vast arsenal of deadly, biological and chemical weapons," the president said. "To the contrary, the regime is pursuing an elaborate campaign to conceal its weapons materials and to hide or intimidate key experts and scientists."
Bush maintained that the effort was being directed from the highest levels of the Iraqi regime, including the official responsible for cooperating with inspectors.
"We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have," Bush said.
Hans Blix, who directs the U. N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, are to present their third report to the Security Council next Friday.
U.S. and British troops have been massing in the Persian Gulf in preparation for a possible war.
Meanwhile, Iraq's failure to get rid of banned weapons continues 12 years after Saddam agreed to disarm following its unsuccessful invasion of Kuwait and more than 90 days after the Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1441, ordering disarmament, Bush said.
"Having made its demands, the Security Council must not back down when those demands are defied and mocked by a dictator," Bush said.
"The United States would welcome and support a new resolution making clear that the Security Council stands behinds its previous demands. Yet, resolutions mean little without resolve," the president added. "And the United States, along with a growing coalition of nations, will take whatever action is necessary to defend ourselves and disarm the Iraqi regime."
