>>I believe he is doing an acceptable job.<< Okay pezz, then read on.
then...Friday 7 August 1998
White House seeks tough UN line on Iraq arms crisis
By Christopher Lockwood, Diplomatic Editor
telegraph.co.uk
THE Clinton administration demanded "a strong, unmistakable" response from the United Nations Security Council yesterday, 24 hours after Iraq said that it had suspended co-operation with UN arms inspectors.
The Security Council was meeting in New York last night to discuss the latest crisis provoked by Saddam Hussein, who is seeking to overturn sanctions imposed on Iraq after his forces invaded Kuwait eight years ago. Diplomats expected the council to issue a statement calling for Saddam to adhere to UN resolutions requiring him to allow weapons inspectors free access to any sites they deem necessary.
The threat of "severest consequences" should he fail to do so was made in a UN resolution earlier this year and this remains in effect, diplomats noted. Entering the meeting, Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, said that Baghdad was in breach of UN resolutions and of the agreement he signed with Iraqi officials in February, at the end of the previous crisis.
Bill Richardson, the United States ambassador, denounced the Iraqi position as "totally unacceptable". He said: "Once again they're defying the world, they're defying the United Nations, they're defying the secretary-general, they're defying their own allies on the Security Council, and this is not going to stand."
------------
now....Tuesday 15 September 1998
Iraq vote to end arms co-operation
By Christopher Lockwood, Diplomatic Editor
IRAQ'S parliament, taking advantage of the paralysis that now grips the American body politic, yesterday voted to end all co-operation with United Nations weapons inspectors in a move that diplomats fear will go unchallenged by the West.<-----------look here, pezz
telegraph.co.uk
<Picture>
Unanimous: The Iraqi National Assembly votes to end co-operation with the UN weapons inspectors
The resolution, adopted unanimously, is not binding on President Saddam Hussein's cabinet, which is expected to meet on Thursday. But in August, a parliamentary resolution was used by the ruling Revolutionary Command Council as a pretext for the partial suspension of inspection missions.
Since then, the UN effort has been paralysed. Yesterday, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency said that as a result of Iraqi non-co-operation, it is no longer able to carry out its related task of inspecting Iraq's nuclear programme.
The August decision ended the ability of UN weapons inspectors and teams from the IAEA, who are seeking to eliminate Iraq's capacity to produce nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, to inspect any site they need to without warning.
But it allowed the work of monitoring known Iraqi military and industrial installations, which might be used to make such weapons, to continue. That monitoring takes the form of regular visits to a declared list of such sites, plus the use of surveillance cameras and sensing equipment.
The parliamentary resolution, which diplomats expect Saddam will soon endorse, threatens to stop all forms of co-operation with the UN inspectors. If implemented, it will represent the end of the attempt to disarm Saddam.
Iraqi MPs recommended that the leadership decide on "a total break in relations with the UN Special Commission (Unscom)" for disarmament unless the UN restores its regular reviews of the harsh trade sanctions imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1990.
Although the sanctions have been extended at every review since then, Saddam has been able to use the review debate as a way of successfully sowing dissent among the Western and Arab alliance that defeated him. Last Wednesday, the UN Security Council, finally reacting to the August provocation of more than a month earlier, voted to suspend the regular reviews of the sanctions until UN weapons inspections are resumed.
The sanctions are linked to the work of the UN inspectors, and cannot be lifted until their mission is complete. The UN is not about to reverse its decision of a week ago, so the Iraqi threat will presumably go ahead.
Yesterday, the Iraqi parliament also warned of unspecified measures against American and British inspectors in Unscom, renewing charges they were being used as spies. A British diplomat said: "It looks as if we are in for another Iraq crisis."
---------
And where is our President?
telegraph.co.uk
BILL Clinton sought to repair the massive damage he has inflicted on his own party, by attending a Democratic fund-raising event yesterday in New York.
<Picture>
"The Lyin' King" with his first lady: Bill and Hillary Clinton in New York yesterday
But it backfired. Just three days after the report from Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel investigating presidential abuses of power, depicted Mr Clinton as a liar and reckless sexual adventurer, the President attended a Broadway performance of the Lion King, and was immediately dubbed "the Lyin' King" by critics.
The Democrats need the President's money-raising skills, but his sexual exploits and admitted deceptions have destroyed the party's chances in congressional elections in November. Having hoped only two months ago that they would win a majority in the House of Representatives and trim the Republican lead in the Senate, Democratic pollsters now predict a wipe-out.
All over America marginal constituencies are turning Republican. Nationwide, the party enjoys a seven-point lead over the Democrats, and forecasters suggest the Republicans could pick up 20 seats in the House and five in the Senate.
This would be the third defeat President Clinton has led his party to - 1994 was a Republican landslide and 1996 a more limited defeat - and would underline the devastating impact he has had on the Democrats since 1992. "This guy has cost the Democrats three elections and now he's asking them to stand up for him," said a Republican strategist, encapsulating Mr Clinton's dilemma as he seeks support to avoid impeachment.
The Republicans, meanwhile, are congratulating themselves on not overplaying their strong hand. Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Trent Lott, Republican leader in the Senate, are not calling for Mr Clinton's resignation, and are thus avoiding accusations that they are pre-empting Congress's duty to decide the matter.
While the mainstream press, 89 per cent of whose reporters voted Democrat in the 1996 election, appears to be trying to stir up a "Clinton comeback" story, Republicans are determined not to let either the East Coast opinion formers or the White House turn the constitutional crisis into a partisan fight. Grover Norquist, a conservative activist said: "We don't have to push the ball forward. This ball is rolling downhill." Both parties agree that the constitutional crisis is rolling inexorably toward an impeachment vote in the House. Both sides, too, warn the President to stop splitting hairs, admit that he lied under oath, and leave Congress to decide whether this amounts to perjury or an impeachable offence.
During the Clinton presidency, Republicans have gained control of Congress for the first time in half a century. The President's self-inflicted wounds are equally clear at the local level, with 70 per cent of the population, in 32 of the 50 states, now governed by Republicans. It is comparable to the Tory wipe-out in council elections during the Thatcher-Major years from 1979-97.
---------
|
