Bush Gets Backing for Disarming Hussein

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- NATO leaders Thursday unanimously called on Iraq to comply “fully and immediately” with the latest United Nations resolution, backing President Bush’s campaign to disarm Baghdad.

The 19 North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders pledged to take “effective action to assist and support the efforts of the U.N.” to ensure Iraqi compliance “without conditions or restrictions” with the toughened weapons inspection program.

By focusing on the U.N. resolution, the alliance was able to sidestep whether to support using force against Iraq. Germany in particular as well as France have opposed the U.S. position favoring force if necessary.

The NATO statement follows a 15-0 vote by the U.N. Security Council that ordered arms inspectors back to Iraq to check whether President Saddam Hussein has nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. Together with a congressional resolution authorizing Bush to wage war in Iraq, the administration says it has a diplomatic and political foundation for any conflict.

The NATO leaders’ statement was “a signal to Iraq that it doesn’t have any other option, that no one will support Iraq’s lack of compliance or the kind of behavior in which Iraq has been engaged over the last several years,” said White House National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

“The world is united against [Hussein],” she said. .

One senior Bush administration official went further, saying the statement expresses the thought among NATO’s leaders that “diplomacy has to be backed up by the threat of force.”

During the two-day NATO summit, which ends this morning, the administration also has been exploring with about four dozen countries their specific military contributions in the event of such a war.

Rice acknowledged those talks but said little more, simply characterizing them as an inquiry into “what capabilities might be necessary if military action is taken.”

During a brief appearance with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the president told reporters: “My expectation is that we can do this peacefully, if Saddam Hussein disarms. That’s my expectation.”

Among those who signed the NATO summit statement was German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who remains strongly opposed to war in Iraq. He and Bush ended their public spat over the matter Wednesday night during a dinner for the NATO nations’ leaders and their spouses.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer was more open, however, in repeating his nation’s opposition.

“Our position is completely clear: We will not take part in a military strike against Iraq,” he said while reiterating Germany’s hope that “a catastrophe” can be avoided.

U.S. officials introduced the Iraq statement Tuesday afternoon and by Wednesday morning it was done, according to one senior administration official.

“There was very little editing as these things go,” he said. “So there wasn’t jockeying for position. People weren’t ducking for cover behind artful phrases. And we were very gratified by that.”

Another senior administration official said he was “very gratified” that Germany came on board “without dragging its claws or being pushed.”

Blair, who has backed Bush’s anti-Iraq campaign from the start, underscored Bush’s bottom line of forcing Baghdad to disarm -- one way or the other.

“What you will find here at this NATO summit is a totally united determination on behalf of the international community -- reflected in the unanimous United Nations resolution -- that Saddam Hussein has to disarm himself of all weapons of mass destruction. And how that happens is a choice for him,” Blair said.

Bush travels today to St. Petersburg to meet with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin -- “first and foremost” to personally reassure him that NATO’s expansion eastward -- right up to Russia’s border -- is not a threat to Moscow, in Rice’s words.

Bush himself added, in a television interview with Russia’s NTV, conducted Thursday:

“And I’m going to say to the Russian people: You shouldn’t fear expansion of NATO to your border.

“These are peace-loving people. These are freedom-loving people that are now on your border. You ought to welcome them. It should help Russian security.... The Cold War is over.... The United States doesn’t view Russia as a threat, and neither does NATO.”

In addition, Bush promised to ensure that Russia’s economic interests in Iraq would be protected in the event of U.S.-sought “regime change” in Baghdad.

Oil-rich Iraq owes Moscow about $8 billion in Soviet-era debts for military equipment Baghdad acquired during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

“And of course we’ll be interested in all interests. We have no desire to run the show, to run the country,” Bush said. “And we understand Russia has got interests there, as do other countries. And of course those interests will be honored.” From St. Petersburg, the president is scheduled to fly to Vilnius, Lithuania, where he plans to stay overnight before traveling on to Bucharest, Romania, on Saturday.

In another interview, with LNK TV of Lithuania, one of NATO’s seven new incoming members, Bush said he had one message to the people of that nation: “You’re free.”

Bush added: “I’ll also say to the world that the Baltic countries know what it means to live under fear and the lack of freedom, and to have these countries be allied with the United States and other nations is important to our soul. It’s important to have that sense of freedom as a source of vigor and strength, and a very important alliance.”