Will Saddam Hussein take asylum in Russia?

Despite war clouds gathering around Iraq, UK ministers, for the first time, have said the war is not inevitable.

Despite war clouds gathering around Iraq, British ministers, for the first time, have said the war is not inevitable. It can be avoided if President Saddam Hussein disarms, stands down or is deposed by the opposition.

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Reports are Tony Blair and Jack Straw are to launch a fresh initiative to keep open the prospect of a diplomatic solution to the crisis. They are to play down suggestions that the January 27 report by the UN weapons inspectors to the Security Council may be the trigger for war.

But at the same time war preparations go on. The West does not want Saddam to conclude that the UK and the US, in particular, have gone soft on him and he can avoid conflict without giving up power.

Arab regimes are also making efforts to persuade Saddam to step down or disarm voluntarily to avoid another war in the Gulf.

There are also reports that Germany has joined in the behind-the-door negotiations to persuade Saddam to step down and settle in Russia. Sources say that he may agree to the proposal if he finds war at his doorsteps. But then he will want a full assurance that he won’t be prosecuted for the alleged human rights violations and other crimes, which he was accused of by the US.

A senior cabinet minister has been quoted in the Times, saying that war odds were 60-40 against, compared with 60-40 on before Christmas, in spite of Blair’s grim warnings of dark days ahead in his new year message. This reversal in the stand is being seen as a part of a new initiative not to let the feeling sink in that war is the only solution. While negotiations about his moving to Moscow are said to be going on, the West does not want Saddam to feel that whatever he agrees to or does will not matter, war will be thrust upon him.

We’ll strike if Saddam refuses to act: Bush

The United States is ready to act militarily against Iraq if its leader Saddam Hussein refuses to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction, President George W Bush told US troops on Saturday. “If force becomes necessary to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and enforce the will of the United Nations, ... America will act deliberately, America will act decisively and America will prevail because we’ve got the finest military in the world,” Bush said.

According to HTC reports from London, the British government is to order more than 20,000 troops to the Gulf and the mobilisation of nearly 7,000 troops as reservists by next week in preparation of the war. Defence chiefs, according to some reports, have been given plans for the deployment, which includes a Royal Navy force led by an aircraft carrier.

-AFP, Fort Hood (Texas)