Nation & world briefing Oregon Daily Emerald -Tuesday, March 11,2003 - 3
U.S., Britain may amend war resolution
duo ivemper
Chicago Tribune (KRT)
WASHINGTON — U.S. and
British officials, eager to get United
Nations backing for an attack on
Iraq, said Monday they may amend
their resolution to give Saddam
Hussein more time to disarm if that
would help win passage of the meas
ure in the Security Council.
British Foreign Minister Jack Straw,
speaking in London, said the resolu
tion, which sets a deadline of March
17, could be rewritten to allow more
time and to set specific tests of coop
eration for Iraq to meet.
President Bush was working the
telephone Monday trying to secure
votes for the resolution, only to be
confronted with threats by Russia and
France to veto the measure.
Those two countries are joined by
China, Germany and Syria as de
ciarea opponents ot the resolution,
which is backed by the U.S., Britain,
Spain and Bulgaria. The five unde
clared nations are Angola, Cameroon,
Chile, Guinea and Mexico.
Pakistan, which had been undecid
ed, announced Monday that it would
not support the resolution. However,
officials in Islamabad indicated that
they might abstain rather than vote
against the measure.
White House officials said they
were “within striking distance” of
nine votes, but progress was slow
enough that they said a vote expect
ed Tuesday would be put off until lat
er this week.
While the United States and
Britain worked to pass the resolu
tion, the French were working on a
parallel course to defeat the meas
ure. French Foreign Minister Do
minique de Villepin flew to Africa to
---;
meet with officials from Angola,
Guinea and Cameroon. British offi
cials were dispatching an envoy to
the same three nations to lobby in
favor of the resolution.
U.N. Secretary' General Kofi Annan
warned Bush that the United States
would be violating the U.N. Charter if
it carried out its threat to invade Iraq
without die backing of the world body.
Bush said the United States would be
within its rights to attack Iraq without
U.N. support because Hussein repre
sents a direct threat to America.
Bush contends that a new formal
U.N. authorization of action against
Iraq is not necessary because a previ
ously approved resolution clearly
spelled out that Iraq would face “seri
ous consequences” if it failed to dis
arm. But the resolution is strongly fa
vored by U.S. allies such as British
Prime Minister Tony Blair, who sup
Iraq weapons inspections specialist Joseph Cirincione (left), debates with Churchill High School social studies teacher Mike
Sterling about the effectiveness of weapons inspections and war in I raq at the City Club of Eugene's meeting Monday.
Debate
continued from page 1
“I contend (that) the inspections
work,” he said. “It’s not a question
of acting forcefully — we are acting
forcefully.”
The director, who had the majori
ty of speaking time, said that when
people see the thousands of Iraqi
civilian casualties, other terrorists
around the world will want to de
stroy anything American — be it
U.S. civilians, troops or a McDon
ald’s in Iran. He added that war is
also terrible because of its cost,
which includes the lives, money, de
struction and time U.S. forces will
spend in the Middle East to uphold
the region’s new democracy after
the war is over.
“This is a dangerous fantasy,” he
said, adding the United States will
be put in a colonial position. “We
have never done anything like this.”
Sterling argued that he does not
believe Hussein will voluntarily
disarm.
“I have a fear of assuming a leader
like Saddam Hussein can think ra
tionally like we do,” he said.
Cirincione disagreed.
“Containment works,” he said.
“Saddam is contained. We have him
in an iron box.”
Contact the reporter
atromangokhman@dailyemerald.com.
i r
port Bush but face significant antiwar
pressures at home.
The flurry of diplomatic activity
is growing more frenetic each day.
The Bush administration has vowed
to seek a Security Council vote on
its resolution this week, regardless
of whether it has the votes to pass
the measure.
Opponents of the new resolution
urge that U.N. weapons inspectors be
given more time and point to Iraq's in
cremental cooperation as confirma
tion that inspections, if duly enforced,
could be effective.
The Bush administration Monday
chastised chief U.N. weapons in
spector Hans Blix for failing to tell
the Security Council on Friday that
Iraq has been found to have cluster
bombs arid unmanned aerial vehi
cles, both of which could be used to
spread chemical agents.
Blix's failure to address those issues
during an oral presentation, and his
decision to add them at the last
minute to a 173-page written report,
suggest that the weapons inspectors
have been painting an overly opti
mistic picture of Iraqi cooperation,
administration officials said.
French President Jacques Chirac,
the leading opponent of military ac
tion against Iraq, said in a television
interview that France would veto the
U.S.-backed resolution if it looked as
if Bush had enough votes to pass it.
A “no” vote by any of the five perma
nent Security Council members —
France, Russia, China, Britain and
the United States — amounts to an
automatic veto.
© 2003, Chicago Tribune. Distributed
by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information
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