President Bush is vowing to do whatever it takes to enforce a U.N. trade embargo against Iraq, while officials investigate a rapid rise in gasoline prices that accompanied the invasion of Kuwait.
After meeting separately with Bush on Monday, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney each spoke of a possible naval blockade to punish Iraq and force a troop withdrawal.Bush met with his Cabinet Tuesday to discuss escalating efforts to reverse Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. An international naval blockade is "very likely unless the Iraqis back off," said the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The State Department demanded an accounting for 28 Americans reportedly rounded up from Kuwaiti hotels by Iraqi troops as part of a larger group. "We hold Iraq responsible for their safety," State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said, adding that it was premature to consider the 28 to be hostages. About a dozen Americans were reported to have arrived in Baghdad, the State Department said later Monday.
Bush called for "full and total" implementation of the U.N. sanctions against Saddam Hussein. The president met on Monday with Thatcher, Mulroney and Manfred Woerner, secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
"Ruling nothing out at all," Bush said when asked about a possible blockade.
"These sanctions will be enforced, whatever it takes," he vowed. The reprisals call for a worldwide embargo on trade with Iraq, including the purchase of oil and the sale of consumer goods.
Asked if a blockade would be needed to enforce the sanctions, Mulroney said, "It certainly wouldn't hurt at all."
Thatcher said the West would have to consider a naval blockade of the Persian Gulf if the U.N. sanctions proved ineffective.
U.S. lawmakers Tuesday called for presidential jawboning and tapping of emergency oil reserves to combat rising gasoline prices that have followed the invasion.
"In the last week, American consumers have been ripped off on a massive scale," Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., complained at a hearing before the Senate Commerce consumer subcommittee.
Saddam Hussein "may not be the only greedy person in this picture," said Rep. Phil Sharp, D-Ind., as he opened a hearing of the House Energy subcommittee on energy and power.
The chief targets of the hearings were U.S. oil companies, which have raised gasoline prices by as much as 19 cents a gallon since the invasion.