The United States and Britain started crafting a toughly worded resolution Wednesday that would limit the timetable for Iraqi compliance with weapons inspections and authorize use of military force if Iraq fails to cooperate, diplomats said.
Washington and London intend to complete and circulate the draft next week to the three other permanent members of the Security Council — France, Russia and China — diplomats told The Associated Press. France, Russia and Arab states oppose a new resolution.
"Nothing is on paper yet," said Rick Grennel, spokesman for the U.S. mission at the United Nations, who confirmed American and British diplomats met on a resolution.
Meanwhile, at UN headquarters in New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri in a meeting to cooperate with the weapons inspectors Iraq has agreed to readmit, Annan's spokesman said.
The half-hour encounter was the second between the two men since Monday, when Sabri gave Annan a letter saying Iraq was willing to let the inspectors return unconditionally.
The meeting included the chief UN arms inspector, Hans Blix, who was to brief the Security Council late Thursday on the practical arrangements for taking up the Iraqi offer.
"We hope that this step ... will be the first step toward a comprehensive solution to the crisis in the relations between the United Nations and Iraq and the lifting of the brutal regime of sanctions which has been killing our people for 12 years," Sabri said late Wednesday after the meeting with Annan.
In a statement, Annan said that Sabri had pledged his government's full cooperation on finalizing arrangements for the swift return of inspectors.
Deciding what Iraq must do to comply with its disarmament requirements is up to the UN Security Council, not Baghdad, US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
"We're getting to the point where the council can be specifying what it wants and not accept the Iraqi letter as the be all and end all of what Iraq has to do," Boucher told reporters.
"We think the inspectors should have the right to go anywhere, anytime, talk to anyone, look in any place that they need to do their job," Boucher aired. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
