October 2, 2002	Wednesday	Rajab 24, 1423

WASHINGTON, Oct 1: The United States will seek to “thwart” the return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq until the adoption of a tough new Security Council resolution demanding that Baghdad disarm, a senior US official said on Tuesday.

The State Department official said Washington wanted chief UN inspector Hans Blix to have new instructions and new authority from the council before the inspectors return under an agreement reached in Vienna.

“We are going to do everything we can to make sure that he (Blix) has the instructions and the authority from the Security Council before he goes, the new authority that he needs to do his job,” the official said.

“If those things don’t coincide in exactly the right sequence, we will take up the matter in a thwartsome manner,” the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

“We will move into thwart mode,” the official said, recalling similar language used by Secretary of State Colin Powell in testimony to Congress last week.

Asked what Washington could do to prevent the return of the inspectors until a new resolution was agreed upon, the official replied: “We have certain influence in the council.”

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said earlier that Washington did not believe the inspectors should return until a new resolution had been adopted but had stopped short of saying the United States would work against their return.

“We feel the inspectors should not go in until the Security Council gives them the authorization and instructions they need,” Boucher said.

His comments came in response to questions about the deal reached between Blix and Iraq under which an advance team of inspectors is expected back in the country in about two weeks.

Blix, who is due to brief the Security Council on the agreement on Thursday, said the inspectors would have access to “all sites” in Iraq.

But Boucher said the return of the inspectors under the agreement Blix reached — which relies on existing Security Council mandates — would not be meaningful without a new resolution.

“These procedural discussions that he’s having now are also subject to any further guidance that he might get from the Security Council in the form of a new resolution and new instructions and new authority,” he said.

CONGRESS SLAMMED: President Bush on Tuesday denounced a compromise congressional resolution drafted on Capitol Hill that would narrow the conditions for a US attack on Iraq, saying it would “tie my hands”.

Bush’s comments were likely to hamstring the proposed wording of the resolution put forth by Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana and Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware in an attempt to convince more congressional Democrats to support the use of force and strengthen the consensus for action against Baghdad.

The senators sought to limit the use of force only to make Iraq disarm, while not mentioning charges that Iraq suppresses its own people, supports terrorism and threatens its neighbours.

Bush aides said, for example, that this language would not allow the United States to help minority Kurds if they were attacked by Baghdad.

“I don’t want to get a resolution that ties my hands,” Bush told reporters after a meeting with members of Congress.

Bush said the compromise would be weaker than 1998 legislation which declared that US policy for Iraq included “regime change”.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is more of a threat now than he was in 1998, Bush said.

“I’m not sure why members would like to weaken the resolution, but we’ll work with the members, and I’m confident we can get something done. And we’ll be speaking with one voice here in the country,” he said.—Reuters