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23 January 2003

Bush Confident Europe Will "Heed the Call" on Iraq, White House Says

(White House Report, Jan. 23) (320)
It is important to dismiss the notion that any military action against
the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq would be unilateral, White House
Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters January 23 at his early
morning meeting with them.
Action, he said, would be largely multilateral, and he pointed to
Great Britain, Spain, Australia, and Eastern European member nations
of NATO as partners who have pledged support. Italy, he said,
"recently said that they'd prefer to go through the United Nations,
but they'd stand by the United States.
"There is one particular nation that is opposed, and other (European)
nations are not yet clear," Fleischer said, referring to France's
announcement that it would block a United Nations resolution
authorizing military action.
"The United States is going at this with our friends and allies. There
are a couple nations that may look in a different direction. It's
entirely possible that France won't be on the line. The President is
confident that Europe will heed the call, if the call is made," he
said.
President Bush remains hopeful that U.S. and allied forces will not
have to resort to the use of force, Fleischer said. But he told
reporters that it has become increasingly clear that Saddam Hussein
has entered a "final phase."
Responding to questions concerning recent polls which indicate a
waning of U.S. public support for a U.S. attack on Iraq, Fleischer
said, "If, in the president's judgement, force had to be used to
protect the American people, and that had virtually no support by the
American people, or it had unanimous support by the American people,
the president would not be guided by what the polls said. He would be
guided by what he, in his role as commander-in-chief, believes is
necessary to protect the country."
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)