Baghdad, March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein rejected President George W. Bush's ultimatum to go into exile or confront war, a decision the White House said will be his ``final mistake.'' Hussein, in a statement yesterday, said the war will be Iraq's ``last battle against tyrannous villains,'' Agence France- Presse reported. Saudi Arabia offered Hussein exile, a diplomat told . The demand for Hussein to leave Iraq ``can never happen,'' AFP cited Saadun Hammadi, speaker of Iraq's parliament, as saying. Bush gave Hussein and his sons 48 hours to leave the country and prevent a U.S.-led attack. The deadline expires at 8 p.m. Washington time today, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said yesterday. ``If he doesn't leave the country, he will make his final mistake,'' he said. The U.S. and U.K. have deployed more than 250,000 troops in the Persian Gulf ready to take military action. Bush delivered his ultimatum even as France and Russia were leading calls for the United Nations Security Council to extend weapons inspections to verify that Iraq is disarming. The Iraqi parliament opened an emergency session today in which Hammadi dismissed Bush's ultimatum as ``insolence and aggression,'' AFP said. The parliament was preparing a statement promising to inflict ``a lesson on the worthless,'' AFP said. Six months of diplomacy to persuade Iraq to dismantle its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs failed, Bush said in his address.
U.K. Vote
U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair late yesterday won parliamentary backing for sending troops to support U.S. forces in the operation. As many as 139 of his 441 Labour Party lawmakers supported an earlier motion saying the case for war hasn't been established and UN inspectors must have more time to work. The motion was defeated by 396 votes to 217. The U.S. State Department said at least 30 nations, from Italy to South Korea, are publicly backing the U.S.-led coalition on Iraq and 15 more support it without wanting to be named. Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdelaziz, in a televised address yesterday to his nation on behalf of King Fahd, lamented the failure to reach an agreement that would prevent war and said his country won't participate in an invasion of Iraq. U.S. forces will still enter Iraq in the event Hussein goes into exile, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said yesterday. ``The president made it plain to the American people that, if Saddam were to leave, American forces, coalition forces would still enter Iraq,'' Fleischer said. ``That way Iraq could be disarmed from its possession of weapons of mass destruction.''
UN Withdraws
The UN withdrew 56 arms inspectors and 80 support staff to Cyprus yesterday. The UN World Food Program, World Health Organization and UN Children's Fund have ordered their aid workers to leave. Neighboring Iran pulled out its remaining diplomats from Iraq `` because of the risks of war,'' AFP cited an Iranian Foreign Ministry statement as saying. Russia, Cuba, the Vatican, Poland and some Arab states still have diplomats in Baghdad, AFP said. Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, and Mohammed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, are scheduled to report to the Security Council today. They have drawn up a list of remaining demands on disarmament issues for Iraq to resolve, the UN said on its Web site. ``I don't think it is reasonable to close the door to inspections after 3 1/2 months,'' the UN cited Blix as saying yesterday.
Turkey Weighs Flights
Turkey's government said it will ask parliament to allow U.S. warplanes to fly over the country in any attack on Iraq. The Turkish lira fell as much as 4.1 percent against the dollar after the government decided not to ask parliament to vote a second time on allowing U.S. troops to use bases near Turkey's southern border with Iraq, endangering as much as $30 billion in loans in return. The Turkish government will hold further talks on accepting 62,000 U.S. troops with parliamentarians, government spokesman Cecmil Cicek said. Turkey needs the U.S. aid to avoid defaulting on its $160 billion national debt, investors said. A Kuwaiti navy gunboat fired at Iraqi vessels suspected of trying to lay mines off Kuwait's coast, the London-based Times newspaper said, without citing anyone. The Kuwaiti vessel opened fire after the Iraqi boats failed to respond when challenged. The report didn't say when the incident took place. //www.quote.bloomberg.com