[Nasional-e] UN council backs resolution on Iraq, 15-0

[Ambon]

UN council backs resolution on Iraq, 15-0
Terence Neilan The New York Times  Saturday, November 9, 2002

"Serious" action vowed if inspectors are barred

UNITED NATIONS, New York After more than seven weeks of diplomatic wrangling
and finessing, the United Nations Security Council unanimously agreed Friday
on a resolution requiring that Iraq show that it has abandoned its weapons
of mass destruction or face "serious consequences."
.
The 15-to-0 vote came as something of a surprise, because Syria had been
widely expected to abstain and the Russians had still been expressing some
doubts about the measure earlier in the day.
.
The resolution, sponsored jointly by the United States and Britain, gives UN
arms inspectors "immediate, unimpeded and unconditional" rights to search
anywhere, including President Saddam Hussein's palaces, for chemical,
biological or nuclear weapons.
.
It goes on to threaten Iraq with "serious consequences" if it fails to
cooperate, a clear allusion to the use of force by the United States. An
advance team of arms inspectors is expected to arrive in Baghdad on Nov. 18.
.
Passage of the resolution brought almost immediate congratulations to the
United Nations - and unambiguous warnings to Saddam - from President George
W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain.
.
Iraq has seven days to indicate whether it will accept the terms of the
resolution and 30 days to reveal all its chemical, biological and nuclear
programs.
.
The new measure still leaves the United States free to attack Iraq without a
formal second UN resolution authorizing the use of force. But it requires
the Security Council to assess any serious violation that could lead to war.
.
Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Douri, said after the vote
that Baghdad would study the resolution and decide "whether we can accept it
or not." But he told Reuters that he was "very pessimistic."
.
"This resolution is crafted in such a way to prevent inspectors to return to
Iraq," he told the news agency.
.
Bush welcomed passage of the resolution and called it an opportunity for
Saddam to disarm peacefully, a move that could mean the end of sanctions
imposed after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
.
"The resolution approved today presents the Iraqi regime with a test - a
final test," Bush said in the White House Rose Garden. "Iraq must now,
without delay or negotiations, fully disarm, welcome full inspections and
fundamentally change the approach it has taken for more than a decade."
.
"He must submit to any and all methods to verify his compliance," Bush
added, referring to Saddam. "His cooperation must be prompt and
unconditional or he will face the severest consequences."
.
"The world has now come together to say that the outlaw regime in Iraq will
not be permitted to build or possess chemical, biological or nuclear
weapons. That is the judgment of the United States Congress. That is the
judgment of the United Nations Security Council. Now that world must insist
that that judgment be enforced."
.
With Secretary of State Colin Powell standing beside him, the president sent
a message to the people under Saddam's rule. "All patriotic Iraqis should
embrace this opportunity to avoid war," Bush said, urging them to cooperate
with weapons inspectors.
.
Disarmament in Iraq is a certainty, Bush said, adding, "The only question
for the Iraqi regime is to determine how."
.
Blair addressed a personal message to Saddam.
.
"Cooperate fully, and despite the terrible injustices you have often
perpetrated on others, we will be just with you," he said in London at No.
10 Downing Street. "But defy the United Nations' will, and we will disarm
you by force. Be under no doubt, whatever, of that."
.
"Conflict is not inevitable, but disarmament is," he said.
.
Syria's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Fayssal Mekdad, said
Damascus had voted for the resolution after receiving assurances from key
nations "that this resolution would not be used as a pretext to strike Iraq"
and "reaffirms the central role of the Security Council," The Associated
Press reported.
.
Senior administration officials in Washington said the negotiations that led
to unanimity had amounted to "an excruciatingly difficult task," as one of
them put it, and that the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John
Negroponte, had not received word of Syria's agreement until he was walking
into the council chamber. Negroponte quickly relayed the news to the White
House.
.
Asked who had lobbied the Syrians and what had been said to them, a senior
official said, "I think Syria just ultimately saw where their interests were
in this matter." The official noted that Secretary-General Kofi Annan
himself had spoken to delegates from Syria, a neighbor of Iraq, just before
the vote.
.
"The key to this resolution," one official said, "is to give this regime one
last chance to comply. Of course, there is always that chance."
.
After the vote, Negroponte said the resolution "affords Iraq a final
opportunity."
.
"To the government of Iraq, our message is simple: Noncompliance no longer
is an option," he said.
.
Negroponte reminded delegates that Annan said Sept. 12, and again Friday,
that the council "must face its responsibilities."
.
Annan also said Friday, "I urge the Iraqi leadership for the sake of its own
people to seize this opportunity and thereby begin to end the isolation and
suffering of the Iraqi people."
.
The chief arms inspector of the United Nations, Hans Blix, said an advance
team of inspectors was planning to go to Baghdad on Nov. 18. He added that
he was pleased with the full council support for the resolution, which
"strengthens our mandate very much."
.
The advance team would be involved mostly with logistics and preparations
for resuming full inspections, but Blix has said that some surprise checks
could be done.
.
Inspectors will have up to 45 days to begin work, and must report to the
council 60 days later on Iraq's compliance.
.
Powell missive swayed Syria
.
Secretary of State Colin Powell sent a message to Foreign Minister Farouk
Shara of Syria to help seal the Arab state's support Friday for Security
Council Resolution 1441 on disarming Iraq, according to the official Syrian
press agency SANA, Agence France-Presse reported from Damascus.
.
It said Annan also played a role in swaying Syria, currently the only Arab
state on the council, by defending the resolution in a telephone call with
President Bashar Assad.
.
In a message sent before Syria joined in the unanimous vote in favor of the
U.S.-drafted resolution, Powell said Iraq was being given a peaceful way out
of the crisis.
.
"The final version" of the resolution, Powell told Shara, "following Syrian,
French and Russian amendments, offers Iraq a chance to eliminate its weapons
of mass destruction in a peaceful way," SANA reported.
.
The United States "would not have gone to the trouble of discussions over
these past weeks with Security Council members if its intention had been to
use the resolution as a pretext to declare war" on Iraq, he said.