U.S. Makes Its Final Push for Support on Iraq

The world braced for war Saturday as the United States prepared for a showdown at the United Nations this week, Iraq stepped up fortifications in Baghdad, and the U.N. pulled civilian workers back from the Kuwait-Iraq border.

Iraq destroyed six more of its banned Al-Samoud 2 missiles under the supervision of U.N. weapons inspectors Saturday, but President Bush signaled that smashing a few weapons fell far short of meeting the U.S. demand for complete Iraqi disarmament.

“If the Iraqi regime were disarming, we would know it -- because we would see it,” Bush told the nation in his weekly radio address.

He argued that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein remains engaged in a “willful charade” to deceive U.N. weapons inspectors and is continuing to produce more missiles even as he destroys a few for show.

“We are doing everything we can to avoid war in Iraq,” Bush said. “But if Saddam Hussein does not disarm peacefully, he will be disarmed by force.”

In a sign that conflict could be imminent, the United Nations ordered all civilian nonessential workers to evacuate from the demilitarized zone that separates Iraq and Kuwait and to return to Kuwait City, citing concern for their safety. Those who stayed were on alert and confined to their barracks at night.

And in Baghdad, machine-gun posts have been set up in front of government ministries, and foxholes lined with sandbags have been dug near bridges and along roads. Police armed with Kalashnikov rifles have appeared at many intersections.

Meanwhile, fierce diplomatic maneuvering among members of the U.N. Security Council and others Saturday produced no visible shifts in the seemingly stalemated positions of the major powers.

Bush’s top aides were working on a last-minute campaign to enlist support for a critical Security Council vote this week, establishing a March 17 deadline for Iraq to disarm or face war.

British officials say they believe that sponsors U.S. and Britain have enough votes to pass their resolution. If it failed, the Bush administration has said, the U.S. might not wait until March 17 to launch an attack.

“It could still fall apart, but we think when the time comes that we have the votes,” a British official said Saturday.

“The problem is, no one wants to be the first country to come out and take a stand. And most of them probably won’t until the vote.”

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice were scheduled to appear on the major television talks shows today to argue the administration’s case to the American people.

Bush and Powell made no new phone calls to world leaders Saturday, and Powell had no plans to travel to lobby other capitals, aides said.

‘Letting It Sink In’

“We have no news or announcements,” a senior State Department official said. “We’re letting it sink in.”

The official said that even if the U.S. had been willing to give inspections more time than the proposed March 17 deadline, that probably wouldn’t have earned more votes or prevented vetoes.

“The French would not go for it, nor the Germans, nor the Syrians,” the official said.

“We think it gives Saddam enough time to demonstrate what he needs to demonstrate,” the official added. “If we extended the deadline by any significant amount of time, the U.N. would not be taken seriously. Saddam always does everything at the last minute, so if you give him a week, he does something in the last few days. If you give him several months, he’ll also not do anything until the last few days.”

For the resolution to pass, nine of the 15 U.N. Security Council members would have to vote to approve it and none of the five permanent members could veto it.

As of Saturday, the U.S., Britain, Spain, Bulgaria and Cameroon favored the resolution setting a deadline. France, Russia, China, Germany and Syria strongly favored extending the inspection period. Mexico, Guinea, Angola, Chile and Pakistan were noncommittal, though Pakistan and Mexico appeared to be leaning toward the U.S. camp.

The American strategy is to try to win nine “yes” votes, then to try to sway first China, then Russia and finally France on the undesirable political consequences of exercising their vetoes to thwart the will of the majority of Security Council members.

But France and Russia kept up their counteroffensive Saturday, with Moscow implying that the U.S. would be out of bounds if it attacked Iraq without U.N. consent.

“We believe that it is not necessary at present to adopt any new resolutions,” Russian Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov said in comments released by the Foreign Ministry. “If the United States unilaterally begins military action in relation to Iraq, it would violate the U.N. Charter, and, of course, when the U.N. Charter is violated, the Security Council must gather, discuss the situation and make the corresponding decisions.”

French President Jacques Chirac was lobbying this weekend for an emergency summit of heads of state from Security Council countries, while his foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, was visiting the three African nations that hold swing votes.

Meanwhile, Arab diplomats were discussing sending a last-ditch mission to Baghdad to try to persuade Hussein to step down, U.S. and Arab sources said. The U.S. has told the Arab diplomats that it would welcome such a mission -- but it is staying out of the matter, the State Department official said.

An Arab diplomat cast doubt on such a mission.

“I’d like to see the person who can look Saddam in the eye and tell him to step down,” the diplomat said. Even if “they did, the chances of success are about one in a million.”

Report Deemed Positive

Iraq was still basking in the glow of the report Friday to the Security Council by chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and chief nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei, both of whom accentuated Baghdad’s positive cooperation in disarmament in recent weeks. In the official Iraqi media, their statements were presented as a total exoneration of Iraq and a refutation of U.S. claims that Iraq is defying U.N. resolutions.

Although the U.N. session was widely reported in Iraq, there was scant coverage of the U.S.-British ultimatum to disarm by March 17. Babel, a paper owned by Hussein’s elder son, Uday, acknowledged the proposal but said that the U.S. should give up its “sick illusions.”

Apparently emboldened by Blix’s report, the Iraqi leadership called Saturday for lifting all U.N. sanctions against Baghdad. It also called for Israel to be stripped of weapons of mass destruction and for the U.S. and Britain to be labeled “liars” for their efforts to discredit Iraq.

Expecting a War

On the streets of Baghdad, people expressed satisfaction about the U.N. inspectors’ reports, but many seemed to expect a war anyway. Some said that if war is to come, it should come soon, because they are tired of living in uncertainty.

“I am not afraid,” said Um Moustafa, a woman walking with her three small daughters in Baghdad’s old Shawaka neighborhood. “I have made my preparations,” she said, referring to the stores of flour, rice and kerosene she had accumulated in bracing for war.

Authorities have called for the citizens of the city to rise to its defense in the event of an invasion, with local officials of the ruling Arab Baath Socialist Party giving out instructions neighborhood by neighborhood.

Munir Ali, a 26-year-old bookkeeper, complained that he has kept postponing his wedding because he wants to wait until after an expected British-U.S. attack, but he said his fiancee is suspicious that he just has cold feet.

“Sometimes, I wish it would happen and be over with soon so I could show her I am serious,” he said.

A retiree, Naji Salama Ambari, 60, echoed that sentiment.

“I think the 17th is really the last day, and after that it will be war,” he said. “But the war has been going on here since 1991, and it has never stopped since.”

Wright reported from Washington and Daniszewski from Baghdad. Times staff writers Maggie Farley at the United Nations, Sonni Efron in Washington and David Holley in Moscow contributed to this report along with special correspondent Sergei L. Loiko in Baghdad.