The Hindu : U.S. delays voting on Iraq

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 12, 2003

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U.S. delays voting on Iraq

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

UNITED NATIONS MARCH 11. Faced with tough positions and a certain defeat if the second resolution is put to vote, the United States has delayed voting in the United Nations Security Council earlier set for today. A vote could now come on Thursday or Friday, say diplomats.

At the closed-door session of the Council on Monday evening, the sponsors of the second resolution which set a March 17 deadline for Iraq found the going quite tough, resulting in Britain and the U.S. forced not only to abandon the "early" vote sought by them but to look at alternatives.

According to diplomats attending the session a number of ideas to resolve the stalemate were explored and were under active consideration.

Britain and the U.S. have said that they are willing to not only move back the March 17 deadline for Saddam Hussein, but to further amend the draft resolution.

"We are busting a gut to see if we can get greater consensus in the Council. We are examining whether a list of tests of Iraqi compliance would be a useful thing for the Council. It doesn't mean there are any conclusions," maintained the top British envoy here, Jeremy Greenstock.

British proposal

Britain has proposed a two-phase approach to a new draft resolution: first, the Iraqi leader would be given about 10 days or so to show that he has taken a "strategic decision" to fully disarm with a set of benchmarks established; second, the verification of this disarmament would begin.

"There is a two-stage process. One is to be convinced that Iraq is cooperating. The other is to disarm Iraq completely," Mr.Greenstock said. But diplomats are making the point that Britain is willing to go no later than the end of March for completion of the whole process.

It remains to be seen if the March-end deadline that is being talked about is still acceptable to the undecided non-permanent members of the Council. Several of these nations now say that the original time-frame of March 17 was too short or even unrealistic; and the suggestion last week was that to extend this by between 30 and 45 days.

According to the present scheme of things, nations not represented in the Council will address open meetings of the Council giving their ideas and suggestions. It will give an opportunity for the Council members to intensify the efforts behind the scenes and get consensus over the next two days.

France has said that any resolution, irrespective of the phases and time lines, that had automaticity for use of force would be vetoed. But in softening up the language, the U.S. is keen on picking up the "undecideds" and then hoping that Russia and China will abstain. If France still ends up vetoing a resolution that has the backing of at least nine members, the U.S. will declare a "moral' victory and go about its business.

The Bush administration has been somewhat stunned and taken aback by the intensity of the criticism that has emerged here and overseas over Iraq.

Annan's blunt words

Not only did France and Russia stiffen the positions on Monday, the U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, too had some unusually blunt words on the implications of ignoring the sentiments of the Security Council. "If action is taken without the authority of the Security Council, the legitimacy and support for any such action would be seriously impaired," Mr. Annan said.

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