The United States and Britain circulated a new U.N. resolution on Monday that sets the stage for war with Iraq by declaring Baghdad had failed to take advantage of its final opportunity to disarm peacefully.
But no vote on the document by the Security Council was expected for two weeks. The move opened an intensive period of high-level diplomacy, with France and Germany coming out against a new resolution and a shift to a "logic of war."
The 12-paragraph draft resolution, obtained by Reuters, does not have a deadline and says simply that the Council "decides that Iraq has failed to take the final opportunity afforded to it in resolution 1441."
Resolution 1441, adopted Nov. 8, 2002, gave Iraq a last chance to disclose any weapons of mass destruction programs or be in "further material breach" of its obligations.
The new resolution, to be introduced formally later on Monday, also has a preamble of 11 paragraphs that quote liberally from Resolution 1441, which threatened "serious consequences" if Iraq did not disclose all its weapons of mass destruction.
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France, which has led the anti-war opposition that has strong support throughout the world, announced it would circulate a rival proposal on Monday, meant to strengthen U.N. weapons inspections with the aim of disarming Iraq peacefully.
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"The only issue the president is concerned with is the total and complete disarmament of Iraq and regime change in Iraq," spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.
Before the resolution is adopted or rejected Iraqi President Saddam Hussein faces a test on whether or not he will destroy dozens of missiles by March 1 as ordered on Friday by chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix.
Destruction of the Al-Samoud 2 missiles, which have a range that exceeds U.N. limits, would be a blow to Iraq as it prepares for a possible invasion by U.S. forces.
If it does not destroy them, the United States and Britain could use this as proof Iraq is not cooperating with the United Nations, showing that war is justified.
On Monday, Blix knocked down Iraqi hopes for a continuing dialogue with the United Nations on the missiles.
We have set a date for the commencement of the destruction of these missiles and we expect that to be respected," he told reporters. Iraq had asked for another meeting with the inspectors on the issue.
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He [Blix] ordered Iraq to destroy not only the missiles, but their SA-2 engines, auto-pilots, guidance and control systems, launchers, fuel, oxidizer, casting chambers, equipment and components designed for production and testing as well as software and research used to construct the missiles.
There you have it: the latest brouhaha from the UN... Yawn.
Is Saddam disarming? No. Duh.
Will he ever? No. Double Duh.
Will we go after him with our fine troops and help him meet "Allah?" Yes. Triple Duh.
(And I do love that fab Catch 22 that Saddam's in: does he destroy the missiles, thus admitting that he's got WMD and wasn't being honest and disarming--and yes, that's still only the tip of the iceberg--or does he keep those babies, knowing he'll need them when we start our Liberation of Iraq?)
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