Posted on 09/19/2002 9:15:29 AM PDT by MadIvan
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, has warned Iraq that it must readmit weapons inspectors or face the consequences of military action.
Mr Straw, speaking outside the Foreign Office, said that he and Prime Minister Tony Blair were holding "intensive discussions" with members of the United Nations Security Council following Iraq's offer to allow weapons inspectors back into the country.
Mr Straw, who is due to meet Mexico's foreign minister later today, said that unless Iraq complied fully with the "spirit as well as the letter" of United Nations resolutions, then military action will have to follow to deal with the threat he has posed to the world for the last 11 years.
He said:"As the Prime Minister and I have both made clear, Iraq only made their so-called offer in respect of weapons inspectors as the result of intensive pressure by the international community and the pressure of military action if they failed to respond.
"But what is crucial is that the international community, through the Security Council, makes it clear to Iraq that these inspections have to be without condition, without delay and without games and, to secure that, we are currently in intensive discussions with our partners in the Security Council."
The Foreign Secretary denied that Britain and the United States' "momentum" for military action had been lost this week following Iraq's offer, claiming the international community believed that Iraq would make an offer "in their terms" in the end.
"But what I would point out is that the same government that wrote this letter three days ago offering to unconditionally readmit inspectors is exactly the same government which, four days before that, said it would never admit inspectors unconditionally. We have seen this before."
Mr Straw said it was now for the Security Council to draft new resolutions which would "deal with the central threat posed by Iraq, namely their possession and potential use of weapons of mass destruction."
The Cabinet minister refused to go into details of the drafting of resolutions, but said they must "give full authority to the weapons inspectors who have to go back in there and refresh that authority.
A bid to bring Tony Blair in front of a Commons committee to be questioned over Iraq has failed.
But Mr Blair was said to be considering a private session with the chairs of the Commons foreign affairs, defence, intelligence and home affairs committees.
Labour backbencher Tony Wright had asked for Mr Blair's next public session with the MPs Liaison Committee to be brought forward from its scheduled date in January to discuss the crisis over Iraq.
The rest of the world gets to find out what those of us here have already known...League of Nations II.
By the way, that FLAG PIC IS AWESOME!
Those still against war, will never be in favor of it...even at the cost of their own country's existence.
I hope it works out OK, however, I anticipate all these discussions will be going on in some form a year from now, if indeed we turn this into a U.N. process.
Do not forget: Sadaam, as a dictator, has much greater flexibility and mobility as long as the process remains diplomatic and not military.
Amen to that. Sadly, some cultures resented being pulled out of the dark ages.
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