Iraq said on Wednesday it was useless for the U.N. Security Council to adopt any new resolution on Iraq as the United States was determined to go to war and would find any pretext to do so.
"There is no need for the Security Council to adopt a new resolution, particularly after it has become clear to everybody that the objective of the U.S. administration is not to assert that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction or dismantle the arms it claims Iraq has," the official al-Thawra daily said.
"The U.S. objective is to find a new pretext to launch its aggression on Iraq after all its other pretexts failed, and to try to find a fake international cover for this aggression," it declared in a front-page editorial.
Meanwhile, the five permanent UN Security Council members haggled for a second day over what to do about Iraq, with Russia and France resisting a US proposal and Washington warning the world body it was running out of time to act.
Under the U.S. draft resolution, Saddam would have to submit a detailed declaration of the status of his weapons programs within 30 days of the resolution's passage.
Paris and Moscow continued to object to this US draft proposal and insistence on a single resolution compelling Iraq to disarm under the threat of harsh consequences.
A White House official said on Wednesday that a U.N. Security Council debate over the new resolution was coming to an end and that there is a possibility of a failure to reach agreement. US officials also reminded UN members Washington would act alone if necessary.
"The United Nations is entering the final stages on this, and we would like to see an agreement reached," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "It is coming down to the end. The United Nations does not have forever."
Despite these comments, it is not yet clear that an attack to force Saddam Hussein to disarm would start this winter as once widely expected, AP reported.
If Iraq refuses to accept a U.N. resolution restarting weapons inspections, a U.S.-led attack could take place by December or January, the report added. But, if Baghdad agreed to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspections, at least initially, that could delay military action beyond winter and spring, which are considered the most suitable times for conducting war in Iraq.
Senior U.S. military officials said Tuesday they are ready to act whenever President Bush decides the time is right. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked at a Pentagon news conference whether he was concerned that Iraq has the luxury of time to prepare its defenses against an American invasion.
"I can tell you we're postured in a way that that will not be a problem," Myers replied, according to AP. He said that in strictly military terms, the passage of time can aid both the attacker and the defender. "The longer you wait, obviously, an adversary has time to prepare — but so do you, to prepare for the consequences," he said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
