UN: IN FACE OF OPPOSITION TO THEIR DRAFT RESOLUTION LAYING DOWN DEADLINE FOR WAR IN IRAQ BRITISH AND U.S. DIPLOMATS POSTPONE SECURITY COUNCIL VOTE

Record ID: 645836

  • Title: UN: IN FACE OF OPPOSITION TO THEIR DRAFT RESOLUTION LAYING DOWN DEADLINE FOR WAR IN IRAQ BRITISH AND U.S. DIPLOMATS POSTPONE SECURITY COUNCIL VOTE
  • Date: 13th March 2003
  • Summary: (W1) UNITED NATIONS (FILE) (REUTERS) SLV JOURNALISTS AT THE SECURITY COUNCIL STAKEOUT
  • Embargoed: 28th March 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: UNITED NATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABZ8OWNUL045WEU14D16HEKCW5
  • Story Text: In the face of stiff opposition to their draft resolution laying down a deadline for war in Iraq, American and British diplomats at the U.N. in New York have decided to postpone Security Council vote until after Tuesday (March 11).
    Diplomats in New York spent most of Monday (March 10, 2003) in intense negotiations at the Security Council in order to broker a deal that would put an end to the standoff with Iraq.
    The United States and Britain delayed a Security Council vote on their resolution giving Iraq a March 17th ultimatum to disarm or face war after France and Russia threaten a veto and six uncommitted nations refuse to back Washington.
    So far U.S. diplomats are sure of only four votes at the Council-- Britain, Spain and Bulgaria as well as their own.
    One item in today's discussions was the discovery by U.N. inspectors of an undeclared Iraqi drone that it said could threaten Iraq's neighbors with chemical and biological weapons and might exceed legal range limits. The discovery has been played up by Washington as a possible "smoking gun".
    However, Chief Weapons Inspector Hans Blix said further investigation was required. He said: "Iraq should have declared this vehicle because both under the monitoring and verification plans and under resolution 1284 they did not.
    However, the legality of this vehicle is related to two other matters: If it has reached longer than 150 kilometers then it would be illegal or if we can establish that it is linked to a delivery of biological and chemical weapons, that would also be illegal. We are not yet at that stage and we are quite interested in this vehicle and we are pursuing more, we're trying to get more information from the Iraqi side about this."
    British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the resolution on Iraq may be modified by London and Washington to list detailed disarmament moves for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to fulfill by March 17, and the deadline could be extended a little.
    Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Russia would vote against the new draft U.N. resolution on Iraq, a move that would veto the U.S.-sponsored measure, but his comments seemed directed at the current version, not as it may be modified by Britain.
    Russian Ambassador to the U.N., Sergey Lavrov stressed his position that more concrete evidence is needed in order to go ahead with any plans for military action. He said: "It's not about things moving in someone's direction. It's about resolutions of the Council being implemented and i's about knowing for sure whether Iraq possesses WMD (weapons of mass destruction). The criteria for this is with inspectors and they keep telling us that they're progressing in their work, they're discovering stuff which makes the picture clearer and that they still haven't found any proof that Iraq in fact has WMDs."
    Last week, U.S Secretary of State Colin Powell declared that he wanted the draft to be put to a vote on Tuesday (March 11), but arriving for another round of consultations Monday (March 10), U.S Ambassador John Negroponte announced the vote has been postponed.
    There was no indication as to when the vote would happen.
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