officials were alarmed because the movement of the Iraqi missiles coincided with Iraqi flights into the protected zone. The "no-fly zone" was established last August to stop Iraqi air attacks on Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq. The latest crisis was provoked by Iraq's decision at the beginning of the year to move some Soviet-made SA-2 and SA-3 missiles into an area near the 32nd parallel, the northern border of a zone where the United States, Britain and France had ordered Iraqi planes not to fly. The betting around Washington was that Saddam will attempt to confront the Clinton administration, too, although several analysts predicted the change of power in Washington would create political opportunities for both sides to move toward some resolution. Security Council at the end of the 1991 gulf war? Was this week's dispute a final manifestation of what had become an extraordinarily personal battle between Bush and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein? Or was it only the latest flowering of Saddam's persistent defiance against restrictions imposed on his country by the U.N. concern.Įven so, the latest confrontation raised questions about whether Iraq is locked into a pattern of conflict with the West that will plague the incoming Clinton administration as much as it preoccupied President Bush, or whether Bush's departure will ease the contest and let Clinton focus his energies elsewhere. officials said late yesterday the latest crisis was not yet over, because they were not sure if Iraq had removed from a restricted zone all of the antiaircraft missiles that had provoked U.S. officials have dubbed "cheat and retreat," Iraq has repeatedly flouted allied demands only to comply reluctantly - or move toward compliance - when Western forces were at the brink of initiating an attack. The last-minute postponement yesterday of military action against Iraq, in response to Iraq's apparent capitulation to allied demands, represents a familiar outcome to Iraq's repeated confrontations with the United States and its Persian Gulf War allies.
0 kommentar(er)
