UN Council defers action on Iraq

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 8: The United Nations (UN) Security Council on Friday deferred any punitive action against Iraq until next week after t...

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 8: The United Nations (UN) Security Council on Friday deferred any punitive action against Iraq until next week after the latter refused to drop a threat to expel US arms inspectors.

In Washington, US President Bill Clinton urged the international community to stand “firm and resolute” towards Iraq to prevent President Saddam Hussein from producing weapons of mass destruction in violation of a UN ban.

Noting that envoys dispatched by UN chief Kofi Annan were returning to New York from Baghdad, Clinton said once they report back, “then the international community must decide what to do”.

British Ambassador John Weston also stressed that UN envoys would first have to “report fully” to the Council.

“And then the Council will have to meet again very quickly after the weekend for the next steps,” he told reporters here.

Annan is to brief the Council on Monday on the results of the mission. On Friday, after his three envoys failed to persuade the Iraqi leadership to rescind a decision to expel the inspectors, he handed the matter back to the Council.

In the 15-member Council, permanent members Britain and the US take a hard line on Iraq, while China, France and Russia are traditionally more sympathetic towards Baghdad.

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Seven-year old sanctions on Iraq can only be lifted when the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) certifies that Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction have been dismantled.

In London on Friday, French President Jacques Chirac stressed that “France is, as a principle, not in favor of brutal methods and in particular of the use of force or sanctions.”

“In the specific case of Iraq, it is obvious that Iraq must above all comply with commitments it signed,” he said.

The Council on October 23 adopted a resolution threatening to impose a travel ban against Iraq officials at any time if Iraq continued to block UN inspectors.

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But China, France and Russia abstained in the vote, and it was not known whether they would support possible US and British proposals next week in the Council to activate the additional sanctions.

On October 29, Saddam threatened to expel the US inspectors Iraq blamed for prolonging the sanctions regime. This drew a united Council response, warning of “serious consequences” if the ban were implemented.

Saddam later agreed to defer implementation while the UN envoys were in Baghdad.

On Friday, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said the US ban would remain in place until “the end of the discussions that will or might take place in New York”.

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Aziz hopes to travel to New York next week with a high-ranking seven-man delegation to air Iraq’s grievances at the UN.

Clinton said he had yet to decide whether to grant a visa.

Odai Hussein seeks volunteers

A television station run by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s son, Odai, is calling for Iraqi volunteers to fight America, a news agency has reported.

Youth Television late yesterday urged Iraqis to “volunteer and carry weapons to repulse the American attack, and to defend Iraq’s land and sovereignty,” Egypt’s official West Asia news agency said in a report from Baghdad. The station said those who want to fight should contact the nearest office of the General Union for Iraqi Youth.