JO, check this out: Britain Retools Iraq Resolution to Get UN Support
dailynews.att.net
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - With opposition hardening to war with Iraq, Britain readied a compromise resolution on Wednesday that would give Saddam Hussein more time to prove he has disposed of weapons of mass destruction before facing a U.S.-led military strike.
The White House wants the U.S.-British-Spanish resolution authorizing war if Iraq does not disarm by March 17 put to a vote in the 15-nation U.N. Security Council on Thursday or Friday. But doubts persisted whether it could garner the nine votes necessary to win adoption of the measure, which also faces a triple veto threat from France, Russia and China.
Consequently, Britain sought to amend the resolution to lengthen the ultimatum, perhaps to March 21 or March 24, diplomats said, and to add several specific disarmament demands for Iraq to meet.
"The United Kingdom is in a negotiation and it is prepared to look at timelines and tests together. But I am pretty sure we are talking about action in March," said Britain's U.N. ambassador, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, on Tuesday.
Canada's U.N. ambassador, Paul Heinbecker, who was instrumental in influencing undecided members of the U.N. Security Council, has listed some of these tests, which diplomats said were similar to the a checklist of about a dozen "benchmarks" Britain was considering.
They include Iraq's accounting for bulk quantities of anthrax, the deadly chemical agent V, chemical weapons shells, bombs and munitions and arms delivery systems.
More than 250,000 U.S. and British troops are poised to invade Iraq to remove the government of President Saddam Hussein and destroy his banned weapons programs.
President Bush has made it clear he feels free to order an invasion of Iraq with or without U.N. backing but the White House indicated impatience with the diplomatic maneuvering.
CLEAR MESSAGE FOR SADDAM
"The Security Council needs to stand up, give him (Saddam) a very clear message that he needs to disarm -- that he has days, not weeks, to disarm," National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said in a radio interview to be aired on Wednesday.
"We've lost ground in trying to find a diplomatic solution because the world has not spoken with one voice," she told National Public Radio.
Nevertheless, the United States promised to be flexible and stepped up lobbying in an effort to break the logjam.
Bush personally on Tuesday telephoned the presidents of Chile, Mexico and Angola to push a compromise proposal.
But in Britain, political cost of his strong support for Bush was mounting for Prime Minister Tony Blair, who faced an outright revolt in his Labor Party not to join in military action alongside the United States without U.N. backing.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld raised the possibility of Washington going to war without British support.
"To the extent they are able to participate in the event that the president decides to use force, that would obviously be welcomed. To the extent they're not, there are work-arounds and they would not be involved, at least in that phase," Rumsfeld said at a news briefing.
But Rumsfeld later issued a statement backing away from his suggestion that Britain might not fight alongside the United States. "In the event that a decision to use force is made, we have every reason to believe there will be a significant military contribution from the United Kingdom," he said.
Rumsfeld said his remarks were intended to point out that obtaining a Security Council resolution was "important to the United Kingdom" and the United States supported this aim.
FOUR OF NINE VOTES
The United States and Britain have mustered only four of the nine votes -- their own and those of Spain and Bulgaria -- needed for passage of a resolution setting a March 17 deadline for Iraq to satisfy them that it is fully disarming.
Five nations, three of which have veto power, are definitely against the resolution: Russia, France, China, Germany and Syria.
Those undecided are: Mexico, Chile, Cameroon, Angola, Guinea and Pakistan. In a televised address, Pakistani Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali said: "It would be very difficult for Pakistan to support war against Iraq. This goes against the interests of my nation and of my government."
The six have proposed a 45-day deadline for Baghdad to demonstrate that it is in compliance, basing their proposal on one initiated by Canada several weeks ago. But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer called it a nonstarter.
Two American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, flying on behalf of the United Nations over Iraq were recalled to base early on Tuesday after a tense and confusing incident. U.N. officials said they had been recalled in the interest of safety,
Some U.S. officials said one plane had been threatened by Iraqi jet fighters but Rumsfeld told reporters there had been no confrontation. Iraqi officials said they had not been properly notified about the flight, which included two U-2 planes rather than the usual one aircraft.
In a related development, the U.S. Air Force successfully tested the most powerful conventional bomb in its arsenal on Tuesday, sending a mushroom cloud billowing into the sky over its Florida test range.
It was the first test of the 21,000-pound (9,450-kg) MOAB explosive device nicknamed the "mother of all bombs." Defense officials suggested the test was a message to Iraq ahead of a possible war about the might of the U.S. military. |
