Iraq Says New Resolution Would Harm UN Credibility
BY NADIM LADKI
Reuters
URL: bayarea.com
BAGHDAD - Iraq warned Sunday that any new U.N. Security Council resolution on arms inspections would violate earlier agreements with the United Nations and deal a blow to the credibility of the international body.
But the Iraqi government, after a meeting chaired by President Saddam Hussein, did not say whether it would withdraw its decision to readmit weapons inspectors if a U.S. compromise resolution was passed by the Security Council.
"Regarding the ongoing consultations at the Security Council and outside it, we don't see the need for a new resolution," a government spokesman said.
"Passing any new resolution that contradicts (earlier) agreements represents a retreat from the stand that the Security Council should take," he said.
On October 1 Baghdad reached a deal with weapons inspectors allowing the U.N. officials to return to Iraq after a four-year break, and invited them to return Saturday. But the United States has sought tougher inspection guidelines in a new Security Council resolution before the inspectors return.
"We warn against passing such a resolution...because it means that the Security Council doesn't respect its commitments at the time it asks others to fulfil theirs," the Iraqi official said.
The spokesman said Washington was to blame for the failure of the inspectors to return to Iraq Saturday as invited.
It was the first Iraqi comment since the Security Council started debate on the resolution last week.
Diplomats say key U.N. Security Council members are likely to resolve their deadlock over Iraq and reach a deal on the U.S. compromise resolution in days.
French diplomatic sources said talks on a revised U.S. draft which drops an explicit authorization to use force against Iraq were still progressing.
France has led opposition to initial U.S. proposals which called for the immediate use of force against Iraq if any Security Council member judged it to be impeding arms inspections to determine whether Baghdad was developing weapons of mass destruction. Iraq denies having such weapons.
INSPECTORS WELCOMED
Earlier, Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan, quoted by local media, said Iraq maintained its position on the return of arms inspectors in line with the deal with the United Nations.
"Iraq is prepared to foil any evil American aggression that targets its national sovereignty and the free will of its people," Ramadan said.
Baghdad's official newspaper al-Thawra said the United States would fail in its efforts to rally world backing for an attack on Iraq.
"The American administration has exposed itself, for at the time that it claims to have resorted to the United Nations, its senior officials are releasing aggressive statements threatening Iraq and putting pressure on countries that oppose the aggression," it said in an editorial.
"But these threats will fail as nations around the world including states that are permanent members of the Security Council have come to realize that the United States...is trying to spread chaos in the world," al-Thawra said.
The daily said the United States should abandon any plan for military action because any attack on Iraq "will not be a picnic...and the aggressor will pay a heavy price." |
