US gives Iraq 'serious response' warning

WASHINGTON - The United States has warned Iraq that any use of weapons of mass destruction against US troops and their allies will trigger the "most serious" US response.

The remark by Secretary of State Colin Powell followed news that Iraq has ordered 1.25 million doses of the nerve gas antidote atropine, mainly from suppliers in Turkey.

The disclosure raised fears that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein might be considering using chemical weapons against a possible US military invasion aimed at ending his rule.

But Powell said on ABC television that a warning issued to Iraq at the beginning of the Gulf War was still valid.

"It's still a good message, and I think they understand that the use of these kinds of weapons would be dealt with in the most serious way."

The US was discussing the atropine order with authorities in Turkey.

Atropine has other medical uses, but the size of the order raised suspicions that the Iraqis might want it in reserve as an antidote for their own military forces if they decide to use nerve gases in a conflict.

The New York Times said the US was pressing Turkey to stop the sales, and Turkey had indicated it was willing to review it.

The New York Times said Iraq also ordered autoinjectors that inject the atropine into a person's leg.

One official said Iraq had also ordered obidoxime chloride, another chemical weapons antidote.

Medical and energy experts predict catastrophic health, environmental and economic consequences if the US goes to war with Iraq.

They say the war could escalate into a nuclear conflict that would kill nearly four million people and have disastrous health and environmental consequences.

Even without nuclear weapons, half a million people could die, civil war, famine and epidemics could occur, oil fields may be set ablaze and the entire region could be embroiled in the conflict.

The international health organisation Medact yesterday issued a report examining a the effect of a war from a public health viewpoint.

It said Iraq could go into economic collapse and soaring oil prices could trigger a world economic crisis.

"The need to ensure that Iraq is disarmed of its weapons does not warrant a war," said Gill Reeve, assistant director of the group of doctors, nurses and health experts.

In Washington, another gloomy forecast yesterday predicted that crude oil's price could triple to US$80 ($163.90) a barrel during the first quarter of next year, strangling the world economy.

Energy experts yesterday met at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank to discuss the impact of a US-Iraq war on the oil market.

They said prices could soar if Iraq destroyed its oil facilities while retreating from US forces, and oil facilities in next door Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were damaged by Iraqi missiles.

"All you need is US$40 oil to bring the economy to a complete standstill," said Adam Sieminski, global oil strategist at Deutsche Bank.

"If we have US$80 oil we're going to be in the hole."

Consumers would be hit with skyrocketing petrol prices.

A barrel of crude now costs about US$26.

The US Government could help calm the energy markets by announcing before an attack on Iraq that it planned to release oil from its strategic petroleum reserve.

The reserve, created by Congress in the mid-1970s after the Arab oil embargo, holds 589 million barrels of oil in deep salt caverns at four sites in Texas and Louisiana.

In Baghdad, Iraq's Parliament yesterday unanimously rejected a United Nations call for Baghdad to disarm.

But US President George W. Bush dismissed the action and said he wanted to hear what Saddam had to say.

"The Iraqi Parliament is nothing but a rubber stamp for Saddam Hussein," he said.

"This guy's a dictator, so we'll have to see what he says."

- REUTERS

Further reading
Feature: War with Iraq

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