Posted on 18-10-2002
Bushed
At U.N. - Iraq
By JULIA PRESTON, NYT 17 Oct02
(Photo shows Ambassador Mohammad Abdullah
Abulhasan of Kuwait who called on Washington to give weapons
inspectors a
chance to disarm Iraq)
The US Bush administration's push for an early American-led
war against
Iraq drew broad opposition today in an unusual open debate in
the Security
Council. Many countries backed weapons inspections, and Arab
states said
they would not support an attack without United Nations endorsement,
considering an attack only as a last resort.
In the first day of a special Council session, which was charged
with the
sense that the basic shape of global security was at stake,
Secretary
General Kofi Annan appealed to the Security Council to maintain
unity,
warning that the United Nations would be seriously weakened
by a rift.
Iraq defiantly denied charges, which were repeated frequently
today, that
it had failed to comply with Council resolutions requiring it
to give up
weapons of mass destruction. Iraq's ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri,
called
the United Nations economic sanctions against his country an
act of
genocide. He sharply rejected the American and British proposal
for a new,
tougher resolution for Iraq to disarm, calling it "an insult
to the
international community and the United Nations."
In Washington, President Bush warned European and Arab nations
that are
resisting a confrontation with President Saddam Hussein that
"those who
choose to live in denial may eventually be forced to live in
fear." After a
meeting with the Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Mr. Bush said
he fully
expected that Israel would retaliate for any unprovoked Iraqi
attack. Mr.
Bush also painted a far more ominous picture than he has to
date about the
dangers of allowing the debate in the United Nations to drag
on for more
than a few weeks. "If Iraq gains even greater destructive power,
nations in
the Middle East would face blackmail, intimidation or attack,"
he said in
the East Room, flanked by Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense
Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. "Chaos
in that
region would be felt in Europe and beyond. And Iraq's combination
of
weapons of mass destruction and ties to terrorist groups and
ballistic
missiles would threaten the peace and security of many nations."
The two-day public debate in the Security Council was called
at the
insistence of the nonaligned movement, a loose coalition of
developing
nations. Speakers today were from countries that do not hold
seats on the
15-member Council, but were invited to join the debate. As intensive
negotiations over a new resolution among the five permanent,
veto-bearing
Council powers dragged into the fifth week, the non-Council
nations have
become exasperated that their views were not being considered
and demanded
to be heard.
With no Council votes, the nations that spoke today cannot directly
influence the discussions on the resolution. But they included
Egypt,
Kuwait, Turkey and other nations that could be directly involved
if the
United States goes to war against Iraq, as well as the European
Union,
Canada and other important American allies. The veto-bearing
members of the
Council — the United States, Britain, Russia, China and France
— are to
speak on Thursday.
The deadlock over the resolution continued today, with France
and the
United States wrangling over the stage at which to authorize
military
force. No meetings of the five permanent members to discuss
Iraq were even
on the schedule.
Bush administration officials listened to the debate with only
one ear,
focusing on the detailed discussions among the Council power
players.
Washington remains determined to get a single resolution that
would give it
authority to launch a military attack, administration officials
said.
Mr. Annan, in a statement that was read in the Council as he
traveled in
Asia, said he supported a new resolution to strengthen the weapons'
inspectors hands. He told Iraq that Baghdad was in violation
of many
resolutions. "Iraq has to comply," Mr. Annan said bluntly, and
he warned
that the Council would have to "face its responsibilities" if
it did not, a
code word for war. But in a plea clearly directed at the United
States and
France, Mr. Annan said, "If you allow yourselves to be divided,
the
authority and credibility of this organization will undoubtedly
suffer."
Mr. Annan's call for the Council to reach consensus was echoed
by many
nations, as was his demand for Iraq meet its obligations to
the Council.
There was also nearly unanimous support for allowing the United
Nations
weapons inspectors to return as soon as possible to Iraq to
search for
prohibited weapons programs. Many nations described the inspections
as the
last chance to force Baghdad to give up its most dangerous weapons
without
war.
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