UNITED NATIONS, Sept 19: Despite opposition to a war against Iraq by majority of the UN Security Council members, the United States and Britain began work on a tough resolution which would set a time frame for weapons inspections and authorize force against Baghdad, if it fails to comply.
Diplomats and delegates say that US and Britain plan to circulate the draft next week, first for the consideration of three other permanent members of the Security Council, France, Russia and China. US officials told reporters on Wednesday that the diplomats of the two countries met to begin working on the draft.
France and Russia have already voiced opposition to any new resolution authorizing the use of force saying that a resolution passed in 1999 by the Security Council after Iraq evicted weapons inspectors from Baghdad was enough.
The Arab nations, by and large, are opposed to any new resolution for a war against Iraq, saying that the unconditional acceptance, by Baghdad to allow weapons inspectors to resume the work halted in 1998, was enough.
Meanwhile, at the UN, the weapons inspection team started work to make plans to return to Iraq within two to three weeks.
But President Bush asked the Congress to give him authority to wage war on Iraq saying that Iraq would not ‘fool anybody” with its about-face and predicted the United Nations would rally behind the United States despite Iraq’s “ploy.” His administration disclosed plans for moving B-2 bombers closer to Baghdad, preparing for possible war to remove President Saddam Hussein.
US Defence Secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, told Congress on Wednesday that it should authorize the use of military force against Iraq before the Security Council makes a move.
“No terrorist state poses a greater and more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq,” Rumsfeld told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.
At the United Nations, France and Russia seemed determined to stave-off a resolution as plans moved ahead for the return of weapons inspectors. However, the diplomats did not rule out a compromise by the two opposing members of the Council under US pressure.
“We hope that this step ... will be the first step toward a comprehensive solution to the crisis in the relations between the United Nations and Iraq, and the lifting of the brutal regime of sanctions, which has been killing our people for 12 years,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said late on Wednesday after meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
In a statement, Annan said that Sabri had pledged his government’s full cooperation on finalizing arrangements for the swift return of inspectors.
On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said he saw no need for another resolution on Iraq. But in Moscow on Wednesday, Vladimir Lukin, a deputy speaker of the Russian parliament’s lower house, who once served as Russia’s ambassador to the United States, said Russia would likely compromise.
“We are certainly against that, but, being realistic, we understand that the United States would get something anyway,” Lukin said.
French diplomats said they were opposed to any resolution that provided Washington with a “green light” to use military force and that they saw no need to replace a resolution drafted primarily by the United States in December 1999.