HURRIYET- Columnist Ferai Tinc comments on a possible operation by the US against Iraq on Sept. 11. A summary of her column is as follows:
Will an operation against Iraq start on Sept. 11? There are rumors that the operation by the Bush administration in order to overthrow the Saddam regime will start on Sept. 11. The reason why Washington chose this day is that the public nation’s sensitivity for the terrorism reaches its peak on that day. A Russian senator provided this rumor with an official characteristic for the first time. Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Federation Council, talked about the possibility of Bush’s coming into action on Sept. 11. Margelov, who takes place in the circles close to Kremlin and who is one of the most effective names of the Russian foreign policy, thinks that this date will be effective in terms of the public nation’s and the allies’ support. It’s disputable how much the date of operation against Iraq will be realistic. However, there is an important point in Margelov’s explanation. Kremlin, which made a commercial connection with Iraq amounting to $40 billion a short while ago and thus which gave the message that it’s against an operation against Iraq, turns a green light to Washington for the first time. Speaking to journalists last week, Margelov said, ‘If Washington comes into action on Sept. 11, the allies of the US might not want to be left out. In such a situation, Russia might be in a dilemma.’ In addition, recalling that the change of regime in Afghanistan resulted positively, Margelov said, ‘Supporting the Bush administration won’t be very reasonable.’ The Saddam regime is supported by the soldiers and the Russian oil. Lately there has been news that Russia held contacts with the Saddam opposition. Taking these together, it’s understood that Washington started to try to speak gently on the front of alliance.
For the first time, the Iraq opposition began to believe that Washington is determined for the first time. One more meeting will be held in the Netherlands in September most probably. Washington favors the complete removal of the distinctions in the opposition at this meeting. Otherwise, the US is giving the signal that it will intervene in the situation and establish a new post-Saddam government, just as it did in Afghanistan. For the time being, the leadership of Iraqi National Congress Chairman Ahmet Celebi is on the agenda. Shiites and Kurds welcome this solution warmly, as long as their autonomy isn’t harmed. However, the Talabani and Barzani administrations in the Northern Iraq are requesting a guarantee against the intervention of the ‘other great powers in the region,’ including Turkey and Iraq, from Washington. Although an official explanation hadn’t been made by Washington yet, Iraqi leaders say that they had received the guarantee they requested. These explanations should be taken into consideration because both the American and the European press state that the news coming from Washington is positive. Even the American newspapers wrote that the American officials had examined a base in the northern Iraq in order to determine its conditions of usage.
The Iraqi issue is becoming on the world agenda much more day by day. The British and American planes bombed a spot in Iraq last Sunday. Then it was claimed that this was a base of espionage and a radar base was targeted last Thursday, and then F-15 planes belonging to the American Air Forces bombed a base on 150 miles southeast of Baghdad last Friday. The date of Sept. 11 might not be true but the footsteps of an air operation are starting to be heard.