UNITED NATIONS, 22 October — As the five permanent members of the UN Security Council met to discuss a new "revised text" on Iraq put forth by the United States yesterday, the White House said a resolution appeared imminent. "I can’t predict the exact dates that they will take concrete action, but I think it’s moving forward nicely," said Ari Fleischer, who has been monitoring the meetings hosted by US Ambassador to the UN John Negroponte.
"There will be serious consequences if (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein fails to honor his obligations," said Fleischer, adding that if this text is approved Washington will not need a second resolution explicitly authorizing the use of force against Iraq. The United States and Britain have said inspections of Iraq’s alleged arsenal of weapons of mass destruction cannot begin until a new resolution has been passed.
The latest US proposals offer a compromise that drop explicit authorization to use force against Iraq. But they still provide some legal cover to attack Baghdad by containing a warning of serious consequences if Iraq obstructs inspections and citing its "material breach" of past UN resolutions.
The new US draft gives arms inspectors a central role, as demanded by most countries around the world and requests a report from the arms experts before any possible military strike, according to excerpts obtained by Reuters. Chief UN inspector Hans Blix planned to leave for Moscow for talks with top Russian officials on preparations for inspections. In 1998, Russia bitterly criticized the inspectors, and their then leader, Richard Butler, for not consulting with the Security Council.
Blix is scheduled to meet today and tomorrow Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Yuri Fedotov, a senior Foreign Ministry official, Blix’s spokesman Ewen Buchanan said. Both Secretary of State Colin Powell and President George W. Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, stressed on Sunday the need for quick inspections to test Iraq’s pledges to cooperate.
"The world is going to have a zero-tolerance view if he is unwilling to cooperate this time," Rice said on CNN’s "Late Edition." Powell, on ABC’s "This Week" program said inspectors would be withdrawn if they could not function.
Powell also said that he expected to be able to put a draft resolution to the four other permanent Security Council members — Britain, China, France and Russia — early this week. The text would give details of a "new and tough weapons inspections regime, and consequences that flow" if they are not met, Powell told Fox News.
Speaking on ABC television, Powell said he hoped all 15 Council members would take part in discussions on a text soon, but added: "Whether they can get to a final solution this week or not, I don’t know." Such meetings of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council are usually convened to sort out sensitive questions before including the larger council on a vote.
