New UN resolution likely to be presented after new Blix report
( 2003-02-20 10:39 ) (7 )

US and British diplomats are likely to wait for a new report by the chief UN weapons inspector before presenting a resolution that could set a deadline for Iraq to account for its banned weapons, diplomats said Wednesday.

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has to file a three-month update on the work in Iraq of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission by February 28, but council president Gunter Pleuger of Germany said a meeting to discuss it could be held later.

Pleuger said a meeting would be scheduled at Blix's request, and added that it might take place March 3, the first working day of next month.

Meanwhile US and British diplomats are working on a resolution in which Iraq would have to explain why it had provided no trace of seven missiles, 50 warheads and 550 chemical-filled artillery shells which it claimed to have destroyed or lost during and after the 1991 Gulf War.

The US-British aim was to change opinions in the Security Council, where no more than two other members are currently willing to declare Iraq in breach of Resolution 1441 and authorize military action to disarm it, diplomats said.

Resolution 1441 set Iraq two tests: honest and full disclosure of its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and ballistic missiles, and full cooperation with the United Nations weapons inspectors.

But while the 15 council members voted unanimously for the resolution, they are deeply divided about the extent of Iraq's cooperation and the value of continued inspections.

Britain's ambassador to the UN, Jeremy Greenstock, said that once a new draft text was put down, "it will lead to a different kind of debate."

The debate would be "on a specific proposition and it will be on a timing that will concentrate people's minds," he said.

Greenstock said the draft would set a deadline for Iraq, "explicitly or implicitly," but added that "the text has not yet been decided upon + there is a whole menu of options," to choose from.

US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke for 30 minutes today on the subject, White House National Security spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"They talked about Iraq. They talked about the second resolution and they talked about the importance of seeing Saddam Hussein disarmed," said McCormack, adding no further details.

Another diplomat said a debate was going on within the US administration about the wisdom of setting an ultimatum and benchmarks for Iraqi cooperation.

But if benchmarks were needed, he said, they could be found in a report to the council by a panel of experts set up January 30, 1999, seven weeks after the previous UN inspection agency (UNSCOM) withdrew from Iraq.

UN diplomats also said that Blix will ask Iraq to destroy its stock of al-Samoud missiles because their range exceeds limits imposed by the Security Council.

Under the council resolution that defines the April 1991 the terms of the Gulf War ceasefire, Iraq is required to accept the destruction, removal or rendering harmless of banned weapons under international supervision.

It is not allowed to destroy them unilaterally.

Blix's spokesman refused to comment on the report.

Blix told the council Friday that the two declared variants of the al-Samoud missile were banned under the terms of the resolution, which imposed a limit of 150 kilometer (93 miles) on the range of Iraqi ballistic missiles.

Experts who had done a technical study for the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission headed by Blix needed more details before saying whether another Iraqi missile, the al-Fatah, should also be banned, he said.

Blix and the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammed ElBaradei, have briefed the council together four times since inspections began November 27.

But the next report concerns only Blix, who is required to update the council every three months on his work.

(AFP)