November 11, 2002	Monday	Ramazan 5, 1423

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WASHINGTON, Nov 10: Iraq will be held to a “zero tolerance” standard on arms inspections under a new U.N. resolution, and any breach will trigger serious consequences, the US national security adviser said on Sunday.

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice also said she was “very sceptical” that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would meet all the terms of the resolution unanimously adopted by the U.N. security council on Friday.

“We have to have a zero-tolerance view of the Iraqi regime this time,” Rice told “Fox News Sunday”.

“The next material breach by Saddam Hussein has got to have serious consequences. I think it’s pretty clear what that may mean,” she said. “The (US) president has made no secret of the fact that he intends to use force if the Iraqis cannot be brought into a compliance in other ways.”

US President George Bush reserves the right to use force without security council approval if Iraq violates the resolution, she said. But Washington would initially discuss with the security council the consequences of any breach.

She predicted the council would treat seriously any material breach and that any military action would be done in “a quite multilateral way”.

Under the resolution passed on Friday, which demands that Iraq disarm or face “serious consequences”, Iraq has until Friday to declare its willingness to cooperate. There will be no negotiations, Rice said.

“They are not accepting the resolution, they’re simply acknowledging, because they don’t have a right to accept or reject,” she said.

Iraq has until Dec 8 to make a full declaration of its weapons of mass destruction programmes. Anything less than a complete accounting of the programmes would violate the resolution, and a denial that such programmes existed would not be accepted, Rice said.

The resolution is intended as a test of Saddam’s willingness to comply, Rice said. “The best thing that Saddam Hussein can do is to issue a declaration that is full and fair and complete. We will see whether, in that early test of his willingness to cooperate, he passes the test.”

“I would assume that the next time that Saddam Hussein demonstrably gives false information he is going to be held in material breach,” she said.

Saddam must lead inspectors to the weapons sites, rather than force inspectors to find them, she said. “We do not need to waste the world’s time with another game of cat and mouse.”

She also said inspectors would take steps to ensure that Iraqis familiar with weapons programmes can talk freely to inspectors without fear of retribution.

Asked how she viewed the likelihood Saddam would meet all of the U.N. demands, Rice said, “I think you have to be sceptical ... very sceptical.”—Reuters