Posted on 03/08/2003 7:21:27 AM PST by Calpernia
U.S. Seeks March 17 Deadline for Iraq
By DAFNA LINZER Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- With a quarter-million troops poised to swarm into Iraq, the United States and its allies moved to set March 17 as the final deadline for Saddam Hussein to prove he has given up his weapons of mass destruction.
The ultimatum, in the form of a U.S.-backed resolution, hands the Security Council a new and immediate challenge: Vote in favor of a resolution that provides a 10-day window for an alternative to war or risk being left on the sidelines as the Bush administration and its allies act on their own to disarm Saddam by force.
The window was designed to attract the support of a handful of undecided council members. But the proposal, issued after the chief weapons inspectors issued upbeat assessments of Iraqi cooperation, didn't draw the instant backing Washington wants and was flatly rejected by France, Russia and China.
"We cannot accept an ultimatum as long as inspectors are reporting cooperation," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told a highly charged council meeting Friday. He called the deadline "a pretext for war," and said "France will not allow a resolution to pass that authorizes the automatic use of force."
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov also said his country opposes settling a deadline and warned that unilateral military action against Iraq would violate the United Nations' charter.
"If the United States unilaterally begins military action in relation to Iraq, it would violate the U.N. charter and, of course, when the U.N. Charter is violated, the Security Council must gather, discuss the situation and make the corresponding decisions," Ivanov said in an interview with Russian television released Saturday.
As an alternative to a deadline, de Villepin suggested another Security Council meeting, this time attended by heads of state who would decide the course of war and peace.
Secretary of State Colin Powell dismissed the idea and U.S. officials said the United States wanted a vote on Tuesday, giving council members three days to make up their minds.
In the meantime, Muslim countries worked a secret, second track of diplomacy, circulating a two-page proposal designed to encourage Iraqis to revolt against the regime rather than face war, numerous diplomats said.
The paper, written in the form of a resolution backed by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, would offer an amnesty to all Iraqi officials who cooperate with inspectors and suggests military force could be used to protect Iraqis under threat from their own regime.
Pakistani Ambassador Munir Akram, who has been meeting privately with Arab ambassadors for the past two days, denied any connection to the paper, which he called "one of many ideas floating around." Pakistan doesn't plan to officially introduce the draft unless Arab ambassadors can persuade the major council powers to support it, the diplomats said.
As for the U.S. resolution, Akram said it needed more work and possibly a wider deadline in order for the United States to win the necessary nine votes it needs for the resolution's adoption.
The deadline was a disappointment also for Chile and Angola - two other council members whose support the United States needs.
But even if Washington manages to win them over, it must still avoid a veto from France, Russia or China. The three council powers rejected the resolution Friday with Paris and Moscow vowing to use everything in their power to prevent its passage.
Only Bulgaria plus Spain and Britain - which co-sponsored the U.S. resolution - have committed to supporting the deadline.
President Bush, Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice planned to lobby allies by telephone until the vote.
If the resolution is defeated, Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have said they would be prepared to go to war anyway with a coalition of willing nations. But both know that U.N. support would give the war international legitimacy and guarantee that members of the organization share the costs of rebuilding Iraq.
The United States has been pushing the diplomatic envelope on Iraq for six months. In November, it won unanimous council support for a resolution that sent inspectors back to Iraq with a tough new mandate and warned Saddam of serious consequences if he failed to cooperate and disarm.
The Bush administration, having determined that Baghdad has failed at both, now wants the council to make good on the threat of consequences. But Friday's council meeting only highlighted the stiff opposition Washington still faces from council members that want weapons inspections to continue.
In their reports Friday, the chief weapons inspectors gave generally upbeat assessments of Iraqi cooperation while criticizing the United States and some of the intelligence it has provided.
Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency bluntly said his teams have determined that U.S. information claiming that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from Niger was based on forged documents.
He also dismissed U.S. arguments that aluminum tubes the Iraqis had tried to import were for a revived nuclear program.
Hans Blix, whose staff covers Iraq's biological, chemical and missile programs said Baghdad was providing real cooperation, especially since it began destroying its Al Samoud 2 missiles, which have a range exceeding Security Council limits.
"The destruction undertaken constitutes a substantial measure of disarmament. We are not watching the destruction of toothpicks," Blix said, "lethal weapons are being destroyed."
But Powell, who attended Friday's briefing along with 10 other foreign ministers, insisted that Saddam's performance was "still a catalog of noncooperation." As evidence he pointed to Blix's own report of key remaining disarmament tasks that have yet to be carried out by the Iraqis.
Powell urged the world body not to walk away from supporting force to disarm Iraq, despite some progress achieved through the pressure of international inspections.
Despite the diplomacy, there were increasing signs of an imminent war.
The United Nations on Friday ordered the dependents of its international staff members in neighboring Jordan to leave the country for security reasons.
And the U.N. peacekeeping department issued a second complaint that contractors, working in the presence of U.S. Marines in Kuwait, were cutting holes in a fence between Kuwait and Iraq.
U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said the contractors, when questioned by peacekeepers, said they were hired by the Kuwaiti government to cut 35 holes in the electric fence by March 15.
What does this mean? Is Russian threatening us?
Russia any country has the right of self defense
Ooh My! Does this mean the irrelevant great debate society will hammer out and agreement amongst Terror look a likes and merchants of Satin.
GET THE UNITED NATIONS OUT OF THE UNITED STATES AND GET THE UNITED STATES OUT OF THE UNITE NATIONS
Wake up America.
And we all know how efficient and effective the Security Council is.
God help us! The Security Council is going to discuss and make decisions!
Does not matter. We have a veto too!!
Anything you can veto I can veto better. I can veto anything better than you.
Yeah, like they will spend THEIR money to help support Iraq.
That is all it's about-money.
First, the fear losing economic ties to a post-Saddam Iraq.
Secondly, they don't want to be obligated to help rebuild Iraq.
They only want the rewards - none of the risks!!
Anybody know how to make a "sideways" document in large print using a full sheet of paper, for taping inside rear car windows?
When we bust the UN, the libs are going to scream bloody murder. We need an instant bumper sticker campaign to get the above message out as an immediate counter to their howls of outrage.
What! You say they didn't seek one?
Hmmmmmmm.
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