• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

17 March 2003

White House Report, March 17: Bush to Address Nation on Iraq

(To avoid war, Saddam Hussein must leave Iraq, Fleischer says) (320)
President Bush will issue an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein, telling him
to leave Iraq or face military action, in a televised address to the
United States at 8 p.m. March 17, Washington time, White House Press
Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters.
Fleischer made the announcement at the White House the morning of
March 17, minutes after U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John
Negroponte and United Kingdom Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock announced
in New York that they had withdrawn the draft resolution they along
with Spain had offered to the United Nations Security Council.
That proposed resolution had sought to hold the Security Council
accountable for the language in Security Council Resolution 1441 by
saying that Iraq has "failed to take the final opportunity" to
relinquish its weapons of mass destruction.
Fleischer told reporters "The United Nations has failed to enforce its
own demands that Iraq immediately disarm. As a result, the diplomatic
window has now been closed. The president will address the nation
tonight at 8 o'clock. He will say that in order to avoid military
conflict, Saddam Hussein must leave the country."
The press secretary also reported that President Bush began his day
with yet another series of phone calls. He spoke with Britain's Prime
Minister Tony Blair and Spain's Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. Bush
also met with his National Security Council, Fleischer said, where he
received an update from Secretary of State Colin Powell, who had been
in touch with some six foreign ministers around the world and with
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
When asked how much time Bush would give Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq,
Fleischer said, "I'm not going to get into every detail of what the
president will say, but it will be accurate to call it an ultimatum."
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)