A rchive Date
[ 12-11-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Iraq ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2002/11/11/4109-ap.html
Iraq parliament rejects UN resolution
Leaves final decision to Saddam
By WAIEL FALEH
Tue, November 12, 2002
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's parliament recommended Tuesday that President Saddam Hussein reject the new UN weapons inspection resolution, but the Iraqi leader's son offered a way out - make Arabs part of the inspection team. Odai Saddam Hussein's proposal, which echoes one from the Arab League, didn't impress Washington.
The United States insists Iraq accept the UN resolution without quibbling in order to avoid war. The final decision rests with Saddam, who must respond to the United Nations by Friday. "There's nothing in this resolution that is negotiable," Sean McCormack, a spokesman for President George W. Bush, said in Washington.
Bush scoffed at the Iraqi parliament's rejection of the UN resolution. "If Saddam Hussein does not comply to the detail of the resolution, we will lead a coalition to disarm him," Bush said Tuesday in Washington.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he would be happy to accept Iraq's response to the UN resolution anytime before the end of the day Friday, the UN-imposed deadline. "We haven't fixed any precise time, but I think everybody will be satisfied if we got a letter . . . by the end of the day on the 15th," Annan told reporters.
Iraqi representatives, who must pledge loyalty to Saddam to earn a place in the 250-seat parliament, voted unanimously Tuesday to recommend rejecting the UN resolution.
Parliament Speaker Saadoun Hammadi described the vote as "a message to the United States that the people of Iraq are united behind their leadership, and it also shows that the people of Iraq know that in the UN resolution . . . there are major allegations which are baseless."
The parliamentary resolution went on to say the "political leadership" should "adopt what it considers appropriate to defend the Iraqi people and Iraq's independence and dignity, and authorizes President Saddam Hussein to adopt what he sees as appropriate, expressing our full support for his wise leadership."
Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov as calling on Baghdad "to exercise self-control and pragmatism" by accepting the UN resolution, thereby opening the way for the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq.
In the clearest such statement yet from France, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said on France-Inter radio that force would be used against Saddam if he does not co-operate with UN weapons inspectors. France had opposed making the recourse to force automatic.
In Washington, a Bush administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Iraq is stockpiling supplies of antidotes for nerve agents, suggesting that Saddam is trying to protect his armies if he uses those weapons on the battlefield.
Iraq has imported significant quantities of the nerve agent antidotes atropine and obidoxime chloride over the last two years, the official said, confirming a report in Tuesday's New York Times. Some came from Turkey, and while Washington is trying to stop future deliveries of the antidotes, they are not restricted for import into Iraq.
Turkish Health Ministry spokesman Ebubekir Akkaynak told The Associated Press that Iraq had made no such order. Turkey's Union of Medicine Manufacturers said it was unaware of any request from Iraq for atropine and Mustafa Karpuzcu, general director of Drogsan, a Turkish manufacturer of atropine, said the company had no commercial ties with Iraq and had not received any orders from Baghdad.
If Iraq rejects the inspections resolution, or accepts it but fails to follow its tough provisions, the United States and Britain have made clear they will attack Iraq.
The UN resolution demands unrestricted access to any suspected weapons site and the right to interview Iraqi scientists outside the country and without Iraqi officials present. Iraq, which maintains it no longer has weapons of mass destruction, has insisted on respect for its sovereignty, an argument it has used previously to restrict access to Saddam's many palaces.
Saddam's son, Odai, who appealed for approval of the UN resolution in a letter distributed to lawmakers before Tuesday's vote, said weapons inspectors should include experts from Arab countries.
Arab League foreign ministers who met last weekend in Egypt and urged Saddam to accept the UN resolution also demanded that Arab arms experts be included on the UN teams.
Jacques Baute, the chief UN nuclear inspector, suggested in comments to AP in Vienna that Arabs would be included in the teams being drawn up for the nuclear search as a matter of common sense.
"We will have some Arab speakers of various nationalities," he said, adding it was "essential" for teams to be able to communicate with the Iraqis.
UN chief inspector Hans Blix's office said six Jordanians, one Moroccan and five Turks were among the inspectors from 49 countries that it has trained.
While Iraq's Arab neighbours publicly oppose any military strike on Iraq, they distrust Saddam and are likely to try to protect their relationship with Washington by quietly co-operating in any war on Baghdad.
Iraq has sought to rally support among ordinary Arabs in particular, but Odai Saddam Hussein noted in his letter that pro-Iraqi street protests in neighbouring countries have been muted.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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