US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that the Bush administration was prepared to respond to what it views as “provocative military action” by Iraq.
"Well, the president has made very clear that he considers Saddam Hussein to be a threat to his neighbors, a threat to security in the region, in fact a threat to international security more broadly," Rice said on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer.
"And he has reserved the right to respond when that threat becomes one that he wishes no longer to tolerate," she said in the interview, published on CNN’s website.
Rice did not rule out military action.
"I think it's always best not to speculate about the grounds or the circumstances under which one would do that," she said.
"But I can be certain of this, and the world can be certain of this: Saddam Hussein is on the radar screen for the administration."
Pentagon officials claimed that Iraq fired missiles at US warplanes patrolling the no-fly zones last week, and Bush said Hussein was still a "menace."
House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Missouri, said a military response to Iraq would be appropriate.
"I think we should. I think this no-fly zone has been a productive policy. It's dangerous for us, but we don't want our fliers in risk," he said on the same CNN program.
"And we have repeatedly warned Iraq that we're not going to put up with them attacking our planes or putting them in harm's way," the congressman said. "So, I fully back the administration in sending further messages to Saddam Hussein that we intend to keep this policy in place."
Iraq said Sunday that its forces tried to shoot down a US F-15 fighter last week, “not a U-2 spy plane as claimed by the Americans.”
An official statement carried by the Iraqi News Agency (INA) said that the “US claims aim at finding excuses to launch a new attack on Iraqi radar systems.”
The Pentagon had said that Iraqi forces tried to shoot down, for the first time, a high-flying U-2 with a missile on June 24 as it flew a reconnaissance mission over southern Iraq.
Officials at the Pentagon told CNN on Thursday that the United States was planning a military response to the attempted shootdown.
Although the United States bombs Iraqi air defenses on a regular basis, the sources said at the time that the targets “this time would likely include early warning radar systems which Iraq uses to track the high-flying [planes].”
The radar sites, last hit by US and British warplanes in February, have since been rebuilt, along with a fiber optic network linking them, installed with Chinese assistance.
In another related development, Baghdad vowed to continue to resist US-British air raids on Iraqi territory.
"Iraq will continue to resist the attacks and fight the enemy planes, conforming to its right to defend its sovereignty and security," vowed Al Thawra, mouthpiece of the ruling Baath party.
Under the headline "American Indecency," the paper, cited by AFP, criticized Washington and London for "attacking Iraq and wanting it not to react," and also blasted the "silence of the UN Security Council in the face of the attacks."
The so-called no-fly zones in the north and south of Iraq, ostensibly patrolled by US and UK warplanes to protect Shiites and Kurds, have no official UN approval – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
