US Delivers New Iraq Resolution at UN

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, October 22, 2002

US Delivers New Iraq Resolution at UN

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Anxious to get quick approval for any future action against Iraq, the United States on Monday gave the other four key Security Council members a new draft of its resolution but no decisions were made.

Nevertheless, the new U.S. proposals, which include several compromises, gave hope for a breakthrough after a monthlong deadlock among the council's five permanent members with veto power -- the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China.

France, which was leading resistance to the original U.S. draft, decided not to introduce its own resolution as it had threatened but to negotiate using the U.S. text, diplomats said after a meeting among the five nations.

Last week, Washington dropped explicit authorization to use force against Iraq from its draft but kept in a provision that said Iraq had been warned of "serious consequences," according to excerpts obtain by Reuters."

The United States has also retained language saying Baghdad had been in "material breach" of U.N. resolutions and would be in further material breach if it violated the new measures.

France, Russia and China are apprehensive that this language could be a trigger for a military strike through the back door.

On Monday, the Bush administration also dropped its call for the five powers on the 15-member council to send their own personnel on U.N. arms inspections, a provision most U.N. officials believed politicized the weapons teams.

Instead, the U.S. draft says the inspection teams should be made up of the best personnel available, code for dropping the U.N. practice of recruiting analysts from all regions rather than from nations with qualified experts, the diplomats said.

Also out of the resolution is a call for troops to accompany the inspectors in case of trouble. The text now says U.N. guards can be posted at the U.N. offices.

The U.S. proposals would call on the arms inspectors, searching for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, to report to the Security Council any violations by Baghdad, after which the council would meet again.

France wanted a second resolution to authorize any military action, which the United States rejects. But Washington has agreed to a two-step process but not necessarily to two votes on two resolutions.

Source: Agencies

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