April 9, 2003	Wednesday	Safar 6, 1424

UNITED NATIONS, April 8: Despite US opposition Arab nations decided on Monday to seek a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a ceasefire in Iraq.

Ambassador of Yemen Abdullah Alsaidi, Chairman of the 22-member Arab group at the United Nations, said that the group would seek a “very mild” resolution.

“It will ask for a ceasefire, respect for Iraqi sovereignty and territorial integrity. It will ask for the unity of Iraq,” Mr Alsaidi added.

However, many diplomats sympathetic to the Arab group’s cause cautioned that to get a quick meeting of the General Assembly is complicated and could take more than a week. They noted that the war could be over by the time it was held.

US Ambassador John Negroponte said last week that the United States did not believe that raising the issue in the General Assembly is “either necessary or desirable.”

Two weeks ago at the request of Arab and Islamic nations, the Security Council held a two-day open meeting on Iraq on March 26-27.

Mr Negroponte said there was “ample discussion” in the council, which was still dealing with the issue, “so we see no necessity whatsoever for a discussion of the Iraq question in the General Assembly.”

Mr Alsaidi said Arab nations wanted a General Assembly meeting because “they discovered there was no possibility of a resolution” in the 15-member Security Council.

There are no vetoes in the 191-nation General Assembly. But unlike the Security Council, its resolutions are not legally binding.

An assembly meeting could also be blocked. The Arab group’s request must first go to the assembly’s 21-member General Committee for approval. It includes the United States and the four other permanent Security Council members.

If there is an objection — and the United States is certain to object — the call for a meeting must then be put to a vote of the entire General Assembly. US officials indicated they would try to prevent the meeting.

Iraq’s UN Ambassador Mohammed Aldouri said a General Assembly meeting “will not stop this aggression. This will be decided on the ground there.”