- UNITED NATIONS (Reuters)
- The United States and Britain stepped up efforts on Monday to win support
for a U.N. declaration setting a March 17 ultimatum to Iraq, but six swing
votes on the Security Council remained publicly uncommitted and Russia
renewed its determination to block the resolution.
-
- Security Council ambassadors began new consultations,
but chances of the resolution coming to a vote on Tuesday -- the original
U.S. target date -- appeared to be receding since Washington and its allies
were still far from mustering the nine votes needed.
-
- The resolution would set March 17 for Iraq to satisfy
all Security Council resolutions that it was fully cooperating with disarmament
demands. Opponents said the text amounted to a blank check for Washington
to wage war.
-
- The United States and its allies have more than 300,000
troops with more than 500 warplanes and dozens of warships ready to strike
in a war to remove President Saddam Hussein and his government.
-
- Even if it won nine votes, a veto from any of the five
permanent members of the Security Council would kill the resolution. France,
Russia and China all oppose the draft and Russia said again on Monday it
was determined to defeat it.
-
- "Russia thinks that now there is no need for any
new U.N. resolutions, and that is why Russia has openly declared that if
the draft that has been submitted for consideration, and which contains
unfulfillable ultimatum-type demands, will be put to vote, Russia will
vote against this resolution," said Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
-
- PAKISTAN AMONG SWING VOTES
-
- Pakistan, one of the swing votes, said again it wanted
to avoid war. "We are for a peaceful solution. We have been trying
to find middle ground," said Pakistan's U.N. ambassador Munir Akram.
-
- So far, only the United States, Britain, Spain and Bulgaria
support the resolution. But Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio said on
Monday that weapons inspectors should be given more time if it could be
demonstrated that Saddam was fully cooperating with them.
-
- France, Russia, China, Germany and Syria are definitely
opposed. The other uncommitted nations are Chile, Mexico, Angola, Cameroon
and Guinea. Chile said on Saturday the March 17 timeframe was too short
-
- "There has to be more clarity about what are the
concrete demands being made of Saddam Hussein ... how many missiles he
should destroy, what are the chemical weapons he has, what are the destructive
materials Saddam Hussein has for chemical weapons that he must commit to
destroying," said President Ricardo Lagos.
-
- President Bush has said he was ready to launch a war
against Iraq with or without United Nations backing. But the political
cost was mounting for his main ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
-
- BRITISH REVOLT
-
- Blair's International Development Secretary Clare Short
threatened to resign if Britain went to war without U.N. backing, giving
a warning of the kind of revolt the British leader could face from within
his Labour Party, where anti-war sentiment is running strong. A recent
poll showed that only 15 percent of Britons would back war without a U.N.
mandate.
-
- Britain said it was considering modifying the U.N. draft
to add a timetable of key tests on disarmament which Iraq must comply with
by March 17. A British spokesman said the deadline might also be extended
-- but not by much.
-
- Bush's aggressive stance has stirred a wave of anti-American
feeling around the world, raising the stakes even higher if he were to
launch the war without U.N. backing.
-
- At home, the president's approval rating in a new Zogby
poll fell to 54 percent, its lowest since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Support for the war rose a little, to 57 percent, following Bush's prime
time news conference last Thursday.
-
- However, without a U.N. resolution, support for war dropped
to 49 percent, with 47 percent opposed. Asked what was the greatest external
threat to the United States, 32 percent said the al Qaeda organization,
30 percent said North Korea and only 22 percent named Iraq.
-
- French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin arrived
in Angola at the start of a tour of three African nations with seats on
the U.N. Security Council to urge them to oppose the U.S.-sponsored resolution.
-
- He travels to Cameroon later in the day and then to Guinea.
None of the three impoverished states has much at stake in the Iraq conflict
but may be swayed by Western offers of aid, investment and trade.
-
- Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday the resolution
had a "strong chance" of getting nine or 10 votes but he would
not be surprised if France vetoed it.
-
- Iraqi authorities said they began destroying six more
prohibited al-Samoud 2 missiles on Monday, after scrapping more than 40
in recent days. Bush has dismissed its concessions as a "charade."
-
-
- Copyright 2003 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
|
