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To: LindyBill who wrote (1359)	10/30/2002 4:29:42 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6901

U.S. Expects Iraq Resolution Delay WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is bracing for further delay in U.N. action on Iraq, with the expectation there will be no agreement before next week's congressional elections. France's resistance to a provision in a U.S.-British draft resolution that could trigger an attack on Iraq if it defies U.N. weapons inspectors is the biggest hurdle to an agreement, a U.S. official said Wednesday. As diplomats at the United Nations debated whether to confront Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Secretary of State Colin Powell tried his powers of persuasion on the telephone with the Russian and French foreign ministers. Powell also was holding talks Wednesday with Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of Germany, which opposes any invasion of Iraq - a stand credited with helping Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder win a second term last month. The Bush administration is still angry about the campaign, and Fischer wasn't invited to the White House as a result. President Bush met at the White House with chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency to signal their support for a tougher inspection system. Blix and ElBaradei met also with Vice President Dick Cheney, Powell and Condoleezza Rice, the president's assistant for national security. ``I think everybody agrees there is a need for an effective regime,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. Upon his return to New York, Blix said Bush had assured him and ElBaradei of their full support and wanted to make sure ``there is no cat-and-mouse game'' with Iraq if inspections are resumed after a four-year lapse. Powell, in an interview on National Public Radio's ``Talk of the Nation,'' revised recent estimates that debate on the resolution is likely to be concluded by early next week. His current assessment is ``this will break one way or another'' - with agreement on the U.S.-British draft or with the Security Council taking up rival resolutions as well - ``towards the end of next week.'' Powell said he would be surprised if the negotiations, now in their seventh week, were extended to the week after next. Congressional elections will be held next Tuesday. If the Security Council has not reached a decision by then, Bush is unlikely to announce a decision on the explosive issue of going to war with Iraq until after the returns are in. Powell said the United States would be willing to participate in whatever debate the council holds on Iraq but that ``it cannot find itself handcuffed.'' That is, Powell said, the United States must be free to take action against Iraq with the help of like-minded nations if the United Nations withholds its support. He challenged the notion that Europe is opposed to the Bush administration's determination to threaten Iraq with force if it continues to obstruct U.N. weapons inspectors and does not get rid of its weapons of mass destruction. Britain, Italy, Spain and ``a number of the Benelux countries'' support the United States, he said. Powell did not identify which of the three Benelux countries - Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg - were lined up. By telephone, Powell lobbied Foreign Ministers Dominique de Villepin of France and Igor Ivanov of Russia, whose governments want to defer any threatening of Iraq until a new round of inspections is conducted. He also talked to British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, his closest ally in the hard-fought diplomatic campaign.<< guardian.co.uk

To: LindyBill who wrote (1359)	10/30/2002 4:40:57 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6901

Thanks, LB. Debka (which finally has deep links, yay!) has a political analysis. debka.com Of course, debka's analysis of Fuad's strategy is rather like National Review's analysis of Democratic strategy; it's apt to be extremely jaundiced, to say the least. But like NR & the Dems, debka and Labor both operate in the same political environment, and their assessment may not be flattering, but it won't be off the wall either. They think Fuad has made a big mistake. TWT.