The White House Thursday said it was open to delaying briefly a vote on its UN war resolution until next week if the delay would help win it support. “It may conclude tomorrow. It may continue into next week,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
Earlier Guinea, which had been wooed by both sides, indicated that it might abstain from any Security Council vote. Bush’s chief spokesman has said for days that the vote would be held this week.
A senior White House official said the president decided a few extra days of diplomacy might help British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is facing stiff domestic opposition to war while he tries to forge a compromise.
US officials had said earlier that France is sending exactly the wrong message to Iraq’s Saddam Hussein by threatening to veto a United Nations resolution that would order him to disarm immediately or face war.
Meanwhile, the United States has started deploying radar-avoiding B-2 stealth bombers for use in a possible war against Iraq, the military said on Thursday.
The bombers flew out of Whiteman Air Force base in Missouri on Wednesday night, a spokesman for the 509th Bomb Wing told Reuters. They will join a massive potential attack force of more than 250,000 American and British troops, hundreds of warplanes and dozens of ships already gathered in the Gulf region.
The high-tech bombers were believed headed for the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.
"We have deployed B-2s to the Central Command area of responsibility," said Air Force Lt. Matt Hasson, a spokesman for the bomb wing at Whiteman. "Last night we launched them." (Albawaba.com)
