- (AFP) -- Russia raised the prospect of using its UN Security
Council veto to thwart US plans for war in Iraq, as Arab leaders set a
date for a key summit on the looming conflict.
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- Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and his deputy,
Yury Fedotov gave the strongest hint yet that US attempts to win UN approval
for an attack would be opposed by Moscow.
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- But Russia also urged Baghdad to comply with UN resolutions
to disarm its suspected nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes.
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- Baghdad, meanwhile, accused some Arab countries of refusing
to help Iraq and called on all nations in the region to make a strong stand
to prevent a US-led war.
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- Along with France and China, the other veto-wielding
powers on the Security Council, the Russians favour weapons inspections
continuing and Fedotov was quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency as saying
they would not support a resolution authorising the use of force.
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- Ivanov, in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere
della Sera, appeared to go even further by actually addressing the question
of a veto.
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- "It's an extreme measure to be used in a reponsible
way," the Russian minister said.
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- "We are not against a second resolution in principle,
but we must see what purpose it would serve. To be clear: if the resolution
aims to reinforce the mandate of the (UN weapons) inspectors, we will be
ready to look at it.
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- "If it is designed to allow the use of force, we
believe it would be detrimental," Ivanov said, adding: "Russia's
intention is not to divide the Security Council but, on the contrary, to
maintain maximum unity."
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- The earliest date for a Security Council vote on a new
resolution drafted by the US and Britain now appears to be early March
once chief weapons inspector Hans Blix has delivered his latest report
to the Council.
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- The annual Arab summit will take place in Cairo on March
1 with Bahrain in the chair and will be devoted to the Iraqi crisis, the
Arab League announced.
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- Arab League spokesman Hisham Yussef said Arab foreign
ministers would meet on February 27 to lay out the summit's agenda.
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- Bahrain, which hosts the headquarters of the US Fifth
Fleet deployed in the region, had originally been selected as the venue
for the summit to be held on March 24, but stood aside in favour of Egypt,
which hosts the 22-member Arab League, as the Iraqi crisis escalated.
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- Egypt tried to organise an emergency summit for the end
of February but foreign ministers last weekend failed to agree on a date
and the initiative was abandoned as deep differences emerged over how to
tackle US threats to oust the Baghdad regime.
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- The foreign ministers' meeting ended in acrimony after
Kuwait accused the gathering's Lebanese chairman of steamrollering through
a statement critical of Arab states hosting US forces in the buildup to
the threatened conflict.
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- Almost half the 150,000 US-led troops deployed in anticipation
of a new war are posted in Kuwait, which Iraq invaded in August 1990 and
occupied for seven months before being ousted by a US-led coalition.
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- Amid the bickering, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
acknowledged that an Arab summit in March on Iraq might be too late.
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- He told the French daily Le Figaro that the US-led military
action against Iraq can now only be prevented if Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein could be encouraged to disarm.
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- But Mubarak added that several conversations with George
W. Bush had convinced him that the US president prefers a peaceful solution
to the current stand-off, to prevent the loss of US forces in battle and
the deaths of innocent Iraqi civilians.
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- In Baghdad, the Babel daily tabloid, run by Saddam Hussein's
son Uday, rounded on Arab nations for not doing enough to help the Iraqi
cause.
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- "Some have not only dithered and played the card
of regional interests at the expense of brothers in Iraq and Palestine,
they have applied pressure and threatened their people to stop them from
helping Iraq," the paper said.
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- "They have blocked all those who have even thought
about offering support to Iraq to help it face up to the aggression."
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- Babel branded a declaration from Arab foreign ministers
who met in Cairo at the weekend as "weak and disappointing" and
criticised "certain Arab leaders" who had "undermined the
idea" of holding an extraordinary Arab summit on Iraq.
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- In Washington, US officials led by Secretary of State
Colin Powell, increased pressure on Turkey to decide whether to host US
troops, saying it was possible to attack Iraq without Ankara's support.
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- White House spokesman Ari Fleischer gave the impression
that Washington was losing patience with Ankara, when he said: "Turkey's
support would be desirable but not essential in a US military operation
against Iraq."
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- A vote in the Turkish parliament is on hold until top
Turkish and US officials agree on the terms of aid and cooperation in the
event of a war, said Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of Turkey's ruling
party.
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- Washington has offered up to 24 billion dollars in financial
aid to offset the impact of a war, Erdogan told NTV news channel, but Turkish
officials want guaranteed financial compensation for the impact a war could
have on its struggling economy.
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