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Iraq: Bush Declares Victory U.S. President George W. Bush last night declared victory in the U.S.-led war on Iraq (see GSN, May 1). “The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001, and still goes on,” Bush said during an address on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. During his speech, Bush did not address U.S. forces’ failure so far to find any evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, according to the Washington Post. Instead, he said that U.S. troops have “begun the search” and that “no terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more.” Bush also issued a warning to other countries, such as Iran and North Korea, against supporting terrorism or trying to obtain weapons of mass destruction. “Any person, organization or government that supports, protects or harbors terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes,” Bush said. “Any outlaw regime that has ties to terrorist groups and seeks or possesses weapons of mass destruction is a grave danger to the … world — and will be confronted,” he said (Karen DeYoung, Washington Post, May 2). More Iraqi Officials Captured Meanwhile, U.S. forces in Iraq have taken into custody three former senior Iraqi officials, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, April 30). U.S. troops have captured Abd al Tawab Mullah Huwaysh, former director of the Office of Military Industrialization, and former Iraqi Vice President Taha Muhie-eldin Marouf, the U.S. Central Command announced today. In addition, U.S. forces yesterday captured Mizban Khadr Hadi, a member of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s Revolutionary Command Council and a top Baath Party leader, according to an announcement at the U.S Army’s V Corps headquarters The V Corps’ announcement also said that former Iraqi Trade Minister Muhammad Mahdi al-Salih was arrested yesterday. The U.S. military in Washington, however, had previously announced al-Salih’s arrest April 23. The Central Command has not reconciled the apparent discrepancy and did not comment on Hadi’s reported arrest, AP reported (Jim Heintz, Associated Press/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 2). Sanctions A draft U.N. Security Council resolution on the lifting of sanctions against Iraq could be circulated within the council as soon as next week, diplomats said yesterday. While the United States and the United Kingdom have just begun to discuss their proposals with other council members, “a draft could be circulated as early as next week,” a U.S. official said. The two countries are “still trying to package all this,” the official added. Russia, citing past U.N. resolutions, has said sanctions against Iraq cannot be lifted until U.N. inspectors verify that the country is disarmed of weapons of mass destruction. The United States has argued that the council can change its own rules on the sanctions, however, because Hussein, who was their main target, is no longer in control of Iraq. “The whole focus of work in the Security Council now should be directed toward the future and with the Iraqi people, and not to fight out some of the old battles of the past,” U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said during a speech in Madrid. “And I’m very pleased that almost — I might say all — of my colleagues in the U.N. now are seeing it in that light, and they are talking about let’s be pragmatic, let’s not be dogmatic or theological about this,” he said (Nicholas Kralev, Washington Times, May 2). Some diplomats have said that it is unlikely that the sanctions will be fully lifted by early next month, when the Iraqi oil-for-food program must be renewed. Instead, a suspension or a phase-out of the sanctions is more likely to be approved by June 3, diplomats said. They added that the June 3 date could also be moved back (Evelyn Leopold, Reuters, May 2).
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