A rchive Date
[ 22-09-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Iraq ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/iraq_sep21-ap.html
Iraq wants favourable U.N. resolution
Sunday, Sep. 22, 2002
BAGHDAD (AP) - A defiant Iraq said Saturday it will not abide by United Nations resolutions threatening war, while across the border in Kuwait a top American general said U.S. forces are ready to attack Iraq.
The sharp words come as America and Britain tried to overcome Russian, Chinese and French resistance to a new UN resolution threatening Iraq with war if it does not destroy its alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.
It also follows news that U.S. President George W. Bush has received a detailed set of military options to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and neutralize his most dangerous weapons.
A highly classified plan was delivered to Bush by U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks in September and will undergo refinements in the weeks ahead, a U.S. official said Saturday on condition of anonymity.
Franks, speaking in Kuwait on Saturday, said U.S. soldiers have been training closely with Gulf allies recently and are ready to act against Iraq if needed.
Asked if U.S. forces were ready for war, Franks said: "We are prepared to undertake whatever activities and whatever actions we may be directed to take by our nation." But, he noted at a press conference wrapping up a three-day visit: "Our president has not made a decision to go to war."
Baghdad's announcement that it would not back any new UN resolutions was made during a meeting between Saddam, Vice- President Taha Yassin Ramadan and other senior Iraqi officials. It did not say when the meeting took place.
"American officials are trying, according to the media, to issue new, bad resolutions from the Security Council. Iraq declares it will not deal with any new resolution that contradicts what has been agreed upon with the UN Secretary General," said the brief announcement, which was carried on state-run Iraqi radio.
The statement did not elaborate, but Baghdad is believed to oppose any new UN resolution that includes the threat of military strikes on Iraq or a change to the weapons inspections regime or the oil-for-food program.
U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld expressed little surprise at Iraq's reaction.
"Anyone who has watched the past decade has seen the Iraqi government defy some 16 UN resolutions and change their position depending on what they thought was tactically advantageous to them and kind of jerk the United Nations around," he told CNN. "So it is no surprise at all."
At the White House, Sean McCormack, a National Security Council spokesman, said Iraq's position that it will not comply with future resolutions is "very disappointing."
"We are working very hard within the international community and specifically in the United Nations to address in an effective way the issue of Iraqi noncompliance," he said. "As the president has said, this is an important test of the United Nation's resolve."
Iraq on Monday announced it would accept the unconditional return of weapons inspectors nearly four years after they left. Washington said the move was designed to divide the Security Council and Bush has dismissed it as a ploy and has not ruled out unilateral American military action.
Existing Security Council resolutions give weapons inspectors 60 days from when they begin work in Iraq to give the council a work program. Once the program is approved and the inspectors and International Atomic Energy Agency becomes operational, Iraq will need to co-operate and comply for 120 days.
Western diplomats have said the new U.S.-British draft would tighten the amount of time Iraq has to comply and include new instructions for weapons inspectors.
This could alter a 1998 UN-Iraq deal placing conditions on inspections of eight so-called Iraqi "presidential sites." The deal required agreement between inspectors and Iraqi authorities before checks could take place at any of the sites.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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