UN playing hard, Blair softens Iraq draft

With opposition hardening to war with Iraq, Britain readied a compromise resolution on Wednesday that would give Iraq more time to prove it ...

With opposition hardening to war with Iraq, Britain readied a compromise resolution on Wednesday that would give Iraq more time to prove it has disposed of weapons of mass destruction before facing a US-led military strike.

The White House wants the US-British-Spanish resolution authorising war, if Iraq does not disarm by March 17, put to a vote in the the 15-nation UN Security Council on Thursday or Friday.

US may go it alone
Washington: US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld raised the possibility of Washington going to war without British support.
‘‘To the extent they are able to participate in the event that the President decides to use force, that would obviously be welcomed. To the extent they’re not, there are work-arounds and they would not be involved, at least in that phase,’’ he said at a briefing.
But Rumsfeld later issued a statement backing away from his suggestion that Britain might not join the war: ‘‘In the event that a decision to use force is made, we have every reason to believe there will be a significant military contribution from the UK.” — Reuters

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But doubts persisted if it could garner the nine votes necessary to win adoption of the measure, which also faces a triple veto threat from France, Russia and China.

Consequently, Britain sought to amend the resolution to lengthen the ultimatum, perhaps to March 21 or March 24, diplomats said, and to add several specific disarmament demands for Iraq to meet. ‘‘The UK is in a negotiation and it is prepared to look at timelines and tests together. But I am pretty sure we are talking about action in March,’’ said Britain’s UN ambassador, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, on Tuesday.

Canada’s UN ambassador, Paul Heinbecker, who was instrumental in influencing undecided members of the UN Security Council, has listed some of these tests. They include Iraq’s accounting for bulk quantities of anthrax, chemical shells, bombs and munitions and arms delivery systems.

President George W. Bush has made it clear he feels free to order an invasion of Iraq with or without UN backing but the White House indicated impatience with the diplomatic maneuvering. ‘‘The Security Council needs to give him (Saddam) a very clear message that he has days, not weeks, to disarm,’’ National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said.

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Bush on Tuesday personally telephoned the Presidents of Chile, Mexico and Angola to push a compromise proposal.

The US and Britain have mustered only four of the nine votes — their own and those of Spain and Bulgaria — needed for passage of a resolution. Five nations, three of which have veto power, are against the resolution: Russia, France, China, Germany and Syria.

Those undecided are: Mexico, Chile, Cameroon, Angola,Guinea and Pakistan. The six have proposed a 45-day compliance deadline for Baghdad, basing their proposal on one initiated by Canada weeks ago. But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer called it a non-starter.

Russia has repeated its intention to use its Security Council veto, if necessary, to block a draft resolution giving Iraq a March 17 deadline to disarm. (Reuters)

Police personnel seen to control the situation during a massive protest over the statehood demand and the inclusion of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule, in Leh on Wednesday. (ANI Video Grab)

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