US May Waive Resolution

President George W. Bush may delay or drop a vote on the new U.N. resolution and fight Iraq without international sanction, international media have been reporting one after another.

The Associated Press reported that the US might give up the resolution quoting senior US officials. A British daily newspaper, The Independent, also reported that the US is preparing to go to war in a week having given up on the resolution.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said, “We may take this to a vote, and we may not,” and he told a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Thursday. Powell said that it would be politically less damaging to go to war without a United Nations vote, The New York Times reported.

The US is reviewing its switch in strategy because of France and Russia. Two permanent members of the UN Security Council are threatening to abstain from the vote and 9 votes out 15 at the Security Council would not be sufficient to win a ‘Moral Victory’. It seems only 7 countries: the US, Britain, Spain, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Pakistan and Mexico support the war.

US administrative officials and diplomats believe that the new resolution will fail to pass the Security Council as the members of the Security Council would change their position in a matter of days.

Meanwhile President Bush is planning a meeting in a few days between himself, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, AP added.

In case the US attack is confirmed, new evidence has been revealed showing that Iraqi is preparing for a first-attack on US troops in the Gulf and Israel, ABC News reported.

ABC News reported that evidence pointing to a first attack by Iraq with chemical and biological weapons and setting fire to oil wells in Northern Iraq has been discovered, so the US army is reviewing strategies to avoid any possibility of this happening.

Meanwhile the US deployed B2 stealth warplanes for the first time and 15 navy ships armed with tomahawk cruise missiles to the Red Sea.

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