US, Britain Begin Drafting New Resolution on Iraq at UN

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, September 19, 2002

US, Britain Begin Drafting New Resolution on Iraq at UN

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The United States and Britain began drafting a new resolution on Iraq Wednesday aimed at authorizing the use of force should Baghdad fail to comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions, Western diplomats said.

The draft may be ready by next week and then circulated to the three other permanent members of the Security Council--France, Russia and China--one of the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press.

Iraq's surprise announcement this week that it would accept the return of international weapons inspectors nearly four years after they left has divided the council, with the United States stepping up preparations for war even as weapons inspectors planned their return to Baghdad.

But Russia, France and Arab nations oppose the U.S. demands for a new resolution.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress that it should authorize the use of military force against Iraq before the Security Council makes a move.

President Bush, also speaking Wednesday, said 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.

But at the United Nations, key players moved ahead with plans for the inspectors' return. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was to meet later Wednesday with Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri.

Western diplomats said the U.S.-British draft would likely include new instructions for weapons inspectors and a timetable for disarmament that would be tighter than one laid out in an existing resolution passed in December 1999.

The existing resolution gives inspectors 60 days from the time they begin work on the ground to give the council a work program. If the council approves that program, the inspectors and the International Atomic Energy Agency have 120 days to let the council know whether the plan is going ahead and Iraq is cooperating. If Iraq is indeed cooperating, then the council would suspend sanctions for 120 days, a period which could be renewed as long as the Iraqis continue to cooperate.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov clashed at a news conference over the need for a new Security Council resolution that would set a deadline for the return of inspectors and threaten consequences if Iraq doesn't cooperate.

The exchange between the two veto-holding council members set the stage for difficult negotiations if the United States introduces a tough anti-Iraq resolution, as expected.

Source: Agencies

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