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09 September 2002

Bush Calls World Leaders to Discuss Iraq

(Also meets with Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chretien) (460)
By Wendy S. Ross
Washington File White House Correspondent
Washington -- President Bush made a number of phone calls to world
leaders early September 9 as part of ongoing consultations about the
dangers of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, and urged them to
"listen carefully" to his September 12 speech to the U.N. General
Assembly, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters.
By the time of the morning briefing, the president had already spoken
with Prime Minister Ahmet Necdet Sezer of Turkey, U.N. Secretary
General Kofi Annan, and the president of the European Union, Denmark's
Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Fleischer told reporters on Air
Force One as they accompanied the president on a day trip to Detroit,
Michigan.
There Bush and Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chretien announced
progress on a joint border plan to enhance security between the two
nations, while facilitating legitimate commercial and private travel.
At a private meeting with Chretien, Iraq also was discussed, the White
House said later in the day.
Before the day was over, Fleischer said, Bush would also have called
NATO Secretary General Lord George Robertson, President Hosni Mubarak
of Egypt, and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
Fleischer said Bush's upcoming speech to the United Nations "is pretty
well buttoned down," when asked if it had been finalized. In that
speech, Bush will "indicate exactly what it is he believes should be
done" about Iraq, the Press Secretary said.
Asked if Bush supports a proposal on Iraq by French President Jacques
Chirac that would allow military force to be used against Iraq if the
Saddam Hussein regime within a period of time does not comply with
former U.N. Security Council Resolutions on inspections, Fleischer
said: "One thing that's clear as a result of the president's
consulting and of the president's reminding the world of Iraq's
flagrant violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions, it does
appear that a movement is budding to put some force to previous U.N.
resolutions."
Bush, Fleischer said, "welcomes other leaders weighing in. It's clear
that both the Congress and the U.N. are returning to an issue that had
not gotten sufficient attention in recent years, and now some muscle
looks like it's being put at least rhetorically into the deliberations
of the world's leaders."
President Bush's speech to the nation the night of September 11 is
also important, Fleischer said, because in that speech the president
is going to try to capture the nation's reflections on the terrorist
attacks a year ago.
Bush will make that speech with the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop.
The goal, Fleischer said, "is to capture in a picture America's
visions and the poignancy of a deeply emotional moment. The
president's speech is going to be brief, probably about 10 minutes,
and the president wanted a setting that reminds America again of our
moral calling, our higher purpose as the beacon of liberty and freedom
for people around the world."
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)